ENGINEERING  AS  A 
VOCATION  - 


BY 

ERNEST    McCULLOUGH,   C.E. 

Consulting   Civil   Engineer;     Member   of  the    American    Society    of    Civil    Engineers; 

Western  Society  of  Engineers;     American  Water  Works  Association;     American 

Society   of  Municipal   Improvements;     National    Association  of  Cement 

Users;     American  Society  of  Engineering  Contractors;    Illinois 

Society  of  Engineers    and    Surveyors;    Fellow   of   the 

American    Association    for   the   Advancement 

of  Science;   etc.,  etc. 


NEW  YORK 

DAVID    WILLIAMS    COMPANY 

239  WEST  39TH  STREET 

1911 


Copyrighted,  1911 

BY 

DAVID    WILLIAMS    COMPANY 


THE    SCICNTinC    PRESS 

DRUMMOND    AND    COMPANY 
BROOKLYN,    N.    Y. 


To 

'B  Wtfc 

THIS  BOOK 

is  MOST  RESPECTFULLY  DEDICATED 

BY 

HER  FRIEND  AND  SINCERE  ADMIRER 
AND  SYMPATHIZER, 

^t  .Autljmr 


And   Ruth    said    "  Intreat    me  not  to  leave  thee,    or  to  return  from  following  after 
thee;  for  whither  thou  goest  I  will  go;  and  where  thou  lodgest  I  will  lodge;     .     .     .»• 


260043 


SPECIFICATIONS  FOE  A  GOOD  ENGINEER 

"A  good  engineer  must  be  of  inflexible  integrity,  sober, 
truthful,  accurate,  resolute,  discreet,  of  cool  and  sound  judg- 
ment, must  have  command  of  his  temper,  must  have  courage 
to  resist  and  repel  attempts  at  intimidation,  a  firmness  that 
is  proof  against  solicitation,  flattery  or  improper  bias  of  any 
kind,  must  take  an  interest  in  his  work,  must  be  energetic, 
quick  to  decide,  prompt  to  act,  must  be  fair  and  impartial  as 
a  judge  on  the  bench,  must  have  experience  in  his  work  and 
dealing  with  men,  which  implies  some  maturity  of  years,  must 
have  business  habits  and  knowledge  of  accounts.  Men  who 
combine  these  qualities  are  not  to  be  picked  up  every  day. 
Still,  they  can  be  found.  But  they  are  greatly  in  demand  and 
when  found  they  are  worth  their  price;  rather,  they  are 
beyond  price  and  their  value  cannot  be  estimated  by  dollars." 
— Chief  Engineer  Sterling's  Report  to  the  Mississippi  Levee 
Commissioners. 


PREFACE 

THE  subject  matter  of  this  work  has  been 
rearranged  (with  additions)  from  a  number  of 
addresses  given  before  technical  schools  and  asso- 
ciations of  engineer  assistants.  It  is  published 
for  the  information  of  parents  in  order  that  they 
may  act  wisely  in  selecting  a  career  for  their  sons. 
Semi-technical  periodicals  and  daily  newspapers 
are  bureaus  of  information  consulted  frequently 
by  ill-informed  parents ;  and,  perhaps,  more  than 
half  the  students  now  in  technical  schools  are  there 
because  of  opinions  obtained  as  valuable  advice 
from  such  sources. 

The  reason  for  the  opinions  expressed  by  writers 
in  such  publications  is  hard  to  ascertain.  A  care- 
ful reading  of  the  back  numbers  of  technical 
periodicals  and  transactions  of  technical  societies 
will  prove  the  statements  in  this  book  to  be 
accurate,  and  the  advocates  of  wholesale  technical 
education  have  always  had  these  sources  from 
which  to  obtain  information.  The  reader  is  to  bear 
in  mind  that  when  the  average  engineer  is  men- 
tioned it  is  the  average  in  numbers  and  not  in 
ability  that  is  meant. 

THE  AUTHOR. 

Chicago,  111.,  June,  1911. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  ENGINEER  . 


CHAPTEE  II 
THE  WORK  OF  THE  ENGINEER 18 

CHAPTER  III 
THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  ENGINEER 36 

CHAPTER  IV 
HOME  STUDY  COURSES 95 

CHAPTER  V 
How  TO  HUNT  AND  HOLD  A  JOB 112 

CHAPTER  VI 
DOES  IT  PAY  TO  STUDY  ENGINEERING? 131 

APPENDIX 

THE  OPINIONS  OF  ENGINEERING  EDITORS.  .  ,  181 


"THE  fact  that  a  competent  engineer  can  make 
a  little  money  go  much  further  than  it  would  go 
without  his  advice  and  aid  is  one  which  the  general 
public  is  slow  to  comprehend.  The  average  man 
congratulates  himself  upon  the  dollars  he  saves  by 
dispensing  with  an  engineer's  services,  and  knows 
nothing  of  the  dollars  lost  in  exorbitant  prices,  or 
work  poorly  executed." — From  an  editorial  in 
Engineering  News,  July  11, 1895. 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  ENGINEEK 

THE  average  person  is  puzzled  over  the  exact 
meaning  of  the  word  "Engineer"  after  some 
acquaintance  with  the  many  sorts  of  men  who  so 
style  themselves.  To  engineers  the  confusion  is 
often  humorous,  but  none  the  less  occasionally 
mortifying.  A  fond  mother  whose  son  was  a 
student  in  engineering  at  one  of  the  leading  tech- 
nical schools  was  asked  by  a  friend  how  she  could 
contemplate  having  her  son  work  in  greasy  clothes 
around  an  engine,  "like  a  common  laborer."  The 
same  mother  was  asked  by  another  friend  if  she  did 
not  think  it  a  great  waste  of  money  to  educate  her 
boy  at  such  an  expensive  school  "to  be  only  a  com- 
mon surveyor  after  all." 

Engineers  enjoy  the  story  of  the  payroll.  The 
name  was  not  Smith,  but  it  does  for  the  story.  On 
a  certain  payroll  appeared : 

Smith,  Aaron,  Engineer.  .$15  per  week. 
Smith,  James,  Asst.  Eng.  .$75  per  week. 


2  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

Aaron  Smith  was  a  colored  man  unable  to  read 
and  write.  His  duty  was  to  run  the  steam  launch 
that  carried  James  Smith,  C.  E.,  the  principal 
assistant  of  the  Chief  Engineer  up  and  down  the 
river  where  he  had  charge  of  important  improve- 
ments costing  several  millions  of  dollars.  What's 
in  a  name  ? 

For  years  professional  engineers  have  tried  to 
designate  men  like  Aaron  Smith  as  "  launch 
tenders,"  men  who  operate  stationary  engines  as 
" engine  runners,"  and  men  who  operate  locomo- 
tives as  " engine  drivers."  Such  terms  are  used  in 
some  countries,  but  are  being  gradually  supplanted 
by  the  word  " engineer"  with  a  qualifying  word 
before  it. 

In  the  United  States  the  locomotive  engineer 
is  styling  himself  a  "traveling  engineer,"  although 
that  term  should  be  applied  exclusively  to  men 
employed  by  railways  to  travel  and  instruct  loco- 
motive engineers.  By  this  time  the  public  knows 
that  a  " stationary  engineer"  operates  engines 
in  power  houses  and  on  contractors'  plants.  A 
"hoisting  engineer"  runs  a  hoisting  engine.  A 
man  in  charge  of  an  entire  power  plant  is  known 
as  an  "operating  engineer."  This  does  not  always 
fully  explain,  for  the  operating  engineer  who  takes 
a  contract  to  look  after  a  number  of  large  plants  in 
important  factories  or  large  office  buildings,  may 
be  a  graduate  mechanical  or  electrical  engineer, 
while  the  "operating  engineer"  in  a  sawmill  may 


ENGINEEKING  AS  A  VOCATION  3 

be  illiterate  and  his  entire  power  plant  consist  of 
a  second-hand  fifty  horse-power  engine. 

At  present  an  " electrical  engineer"  may  be  a 
man  who  designs,  or  sells,  or  installs  electrical 
machinery,  or  he  may  be  a  man  in  temporary 
charge  of  a  five  horse-power  motor.  Some  bell 
hangers  are  called  electrical  engineers  and  so 
advertise  themselves.  In  Great  Britain  an 
" engineer"  may  be  one  of  the  greatest  men  in  the 
empire  or  he  may  be  merely  an  employetin  an 
engineering  works,  or,  as  we  term  them  in  the 
United  States,  machine  shops  or  factories. 

With  all  the  confusion  the  public,  through  the 
medium  of  the  press  is  coming  to  a  better  realiza- 
tion of  the  engineer  and  his  work  so  that  the  pro- 
fessional engineer  is  taking  rank  among  educated 
people,  with  the  lawyer,  the  surgeon,  the  physician 
and  the  clergyman.  With  this  better  conception  of 
the  professional  side  of  the  calling  there  has  also 
crept  in  the  idea  that  it  is  a  remarkably  well-paid 
business,  embracing  the  romance  and  adventure  of 
the  soldier's  life  with  that  of  Aladdin,  who  merely 
rubbed  an  old  lamp  when  he  needed  money. 

The  engineer  only  incidentally  is  tied  to  an 
engine,  either  as  designer,  builder  or  operator.  A 
search  of  the  dictionary  for  roots  yields  the  follow- 
ing definitions : 

ENGINE,  French,  engin;  from  Latin, 
Ingenium,  a  genius,  an  invention. 


4  ENGINEERING  AS   A   VOCATION 

ENGINEER,  English,  engin-er;    Old    . 
French,  enginier;  French,  ing&nieur.    A 
person  of  genius  or  ingenuity. 

In  the  Latin-English  dictionary  we  find : 
IngSnlosus-a-um.  (ingenium)  Naturally 
clever,  talented,  acute,  able,  ingenious. 

Students  of  engineering  history  accept  the  fore- 
going definitions  as  satisfactory  root  forms  of  the 
word  " Engineer."  Thus  we  find  the  engineer  is 
"the  ingenious  man."  This  broad  definition 
brings  all  characteristically  energetic,  able  men 
into  the  category  of  engineers.  When  a  man  is 
said  to  have  engineered  a  deal  it  is  understood  he 
obtained  his  own  way  after  the  exercise  of  con- 
siderable ingenuity.  There  are  to-day  many  fool- 
ish persons  who  display  a  silly  affectation  in 
assuming  the  title  of  engineer,  such  as  social 
engineers,  who  are  persons  engaged  in  studying 
social  conditions;  advertising  engineers,  who  are 
persons  engaged  in  handling  advertising  on  a  large 
scale,  etc.,  ad  nauseum.  Other  words,  equally,  if 
not  more,  effective  in  conveying  the  intended  mean- 
ing might  be  used,  for  the  English  language  is  very 
rich.  To  the  writer  and  other  men  in  the  pro- 
fession there  are  two  definitions  which  exactly 
describe  the  engineer,  and  these  definitions,  if 
properly  acknowledged,  would  break  down  the 
artificial  lines  of  separation  between  the  numerous 
" specialties"  of  engineering  work  which  are 


ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION  5 

damaging  and  tend  to  make  of  the  school-bred 
engineer  an  automaton  and  an  illy-paid,  hardly- 
treated  person. 

In  1828,  Thomas  Tredgold,  in  England,  defined 
civil  engineering  as  "the  art  of  directing  the  great 
sources  of  power  in  nature  for  the  use  and  cop- 
venience  of  man."  This  definition  is  incorporated 
in  the  constitution  of  the  Institution  of  Civil 
Engineers  of  Great  Britain. 

In  1885,  A.  M.  Wellington,  a  prominent  Amer- 
ican engineer,  for  many  years  editor  of  Engineer- 
ing News,  said  in  the  preface  of  his  classic 
" Economic  Theory  of  the  Location  of  Railways," 
that ' '  engineering  ...  is  the  art  of  doing  that 
well  with  one  dollar,  which  any  bungler  can  do  with 
two  after  a  fashion." 

The  second  definition  is  really  the  more  broad. 
Any  man  who  directs  the  great  sources  of  power  in 
nature  for  the  use  and  convenience  of  man  is  prac- 
tising engineering.  A  partly  educated  man  may  do 
this.  The  fresh— often  too  fresh— young  graduate 
of  an  engineering  school  may  do  this.  The 
engineer,  however,  has  been  so  well  trained  in 
engineering  that  he  can  do  a  thing  well  with  one 
dollar  which  a  bungler  can  do  in  a  bungling  manner 
with  the  expenditure  of  two  dollars. 

Ability+Education+Training+Experience=Engmeer. 

There  was  some  spice,  perhaps  unintentional, 
in  the  definition  of  civil  engineering.  To  one,  how- 


6  ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION 

ever,  who  appreciates  th6  grim  humor  of  strong, 
self-tutored  men,  the  spice  was,  no  doubt,  intended. 
From  the  beginning  of  civilization  men  had  houses 
built  by  builders  who  came  to  form  a  distinct  order 
and  were  known  after  a  while  as  architects.  These 
men  wrought  for  the  comfort  and  convenience  of 
mankind.  Engineers,  however,  were  military  men 
whose  structures  were  for  warlike  purposes.  Their 
bridges  were  not  erected  for  peaceful  use  and  as 
an  embellishment  of  the  landscape  were  never 
looked  on  with  favor.  Only  architects  built  beauti- 
ful bridges,  following  the  plans  of  the  engineers, 
whose  bridges  were  erected  so  that  armies  might 
attack  a  province  or  defend  a  city.  For  many  cen- 
turies engineers  were  employed  to  plan  campaigns 
and  lay  out  works  to  defend  or  to  attack  forts  and 
cities.  Many  great  soldiers  in  the  past  preferred 
the  title  of  " Engineer"  to  that  of  "General." 

Military  engineers  showed  their  ingenuity  in 
the  invention  of  engines  and  implements  of  war 
and  the  use  of  every  means  at  hand  to  kill  men  and 
destroy  the  works  of  their  hands.  In  times  of 
peace,  or  when  the  engineer  corps  of  an  army  was 
quartered  in  cities,  the  engineers  were  employed  to 
construct  water  works  and  drainage  works  for 
large  districts.  This  was  not  done  primarily  for 
the  purpose  of  making  conditions  tolerable  for  the 
inhabitants,  but  to  provide  water  and  guard  health 
during  a  possible  siege,  for  sieges  in  those  old  days 
sometimes  lasted  for  years.  The  engineer,  the  mili- 


ENGINEERING   AS  A  VOCATION  7 

tary  engineer,  might  have  been  defined  as  one  "who 
practised  the  art  of  directing  the  great  sources  of 
power  in  nature  for  the  harm  and  destruction  of 


man.' 


Somewhat  more  than  one  hundred  years  ago 
some  Englishmen  engaged  on  construction  work 
intended  for  the  advancement  of  civilization,  such 
as  the  building  of  roads,  bridges  and  canals,  and 
the  erection  of  great  buildings,  learned  that  many 
Italian,  French  and  Spanish  architects  and  bridge 
builders,  the  latter  work  by  this  time  having 
become  a  distinct  specialty,  were  in  the  habit  of 
terming  themselves  engineers  without  any  qualify- 
ing designation  and  military  engineers  were  mak- 
ing strong  objection.  These  Englishmen  concluded 
that  since  much  ingenuity  was  required  in  civil  as 
well  as  military  construction,  the  term  "Civil 
Engineer"  was  eminently  proper  and  it  was 
adopted.  There  being  strong  opposition  to  the  use 
of  the  word  engineer  by  civilians  it  was  necessary 
to  exactly  define  the  civil  engineer,  the  definition  of 
Thomas  Tredgold  being  the  result;  somewhat 
insulting  to  the  army  as  well  as  to  the  naval 
engineer,  who,  at  that  time,  had  no  engines  to  care 
for,  but  who  built  docks,  designed  ordnance,  etc., 
and  assisted  the  naval  architect  in  the  design  and 
construction  of  war  vessels. 

To-day  the  distinction  is  disappearing.  Mili- 
tary engineers  have  so  little  employment  of  the  old 
sort  that  most  of  their  time  is  spent  in  work  of  a 


8  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

civil  engineering  nature,  the  internal  improve- 
ments of  the  country.  The  army  engineers  of  all 
armies  are  selected  from  the  honor  graduates  of 
the  national  military  academies.  They  constitute 
a  body  of  well-trained  men  on  whom  the  govern- 
ment may  call  for  any  duty.  Their  pay  is  the 
highest  of  all  soldiers  and  the  engineers  are  the 
ranking  branch  of  the  military  service.  Naval 
engineers  are  highly  trained  mechanical  and  elec- 
trical engineers.  For  the  construction  and  main- 
tenance of  ship  yards,  docks,  etc.,  there  is  a  special 
corps  of  Civil  Engineers  of  the  Navy,  Robert  B. 
Peary  having  been  a  member  of  that  honorable 
corps  of  men  who  have  a  relative  rank,  with  uni- 
forms and  all  the  honors  pertaining  to  the  rank, 
but  who  have  no  right  to  the  use  of  the  title.  For 
example  when  Robert  E.  Peary  was  a  Commander 
he  was  borne  on  the  Navy  lists  as  a  Commander ; 
wore  the  uniform  of  a  Commander ;  took  rank  in 
a  procession  or  at  a  reception  in  accordance  with 
his  relative  rank ;  got  the  pay  of  that  rank,  and  yet 
among  naval  officers  he  was  Mr.  Peary,  Civil  Engi- 
neer, U.  S.  N.  To-day,  while  retired  as  an  Admiral 
he  has  no  right  to  have  the  word  Admiral  engraved 
on  his  calling  card,  unless  the  act  retiring  him  with 
that  rank  was  so  worded  as  to  confer  that  right. 
But  we  digress  while  discussing  the  strange  cus- 
toms of  the  least  democratic  of  all  the  institutions 
of  the  American  government. 

Shortly  after  the  Civil  Engineer  appeared  the 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  9 

steam  engine  was  improved  to  such  an  extent  tliat 
its  rapid  development  led  to  the  most  wonderful 
changes  the  world  has  ever  witnessed.  The  power 
of  men  to  achieve  was  multiplied  a  millionf  old  and 
manual  labor  gave  way  to  mechanical  effort, 
whereby  comforts  hitherto  unknown  were  brought 
within  the  means  of  everyone.  Need  was  had  for 
men  trained  in  mathematics  and  the  physical 
sciences  and  such  men  were  found  in  the  ranks  of 
the  engineers,  civil,  naval  and  military.  The  first 
men  to  make  a  specialty  of  engine  design  and 
operation  were  known  as  Mechanical  Civil 
Engineers,  but  for  only  a  short  time  was  the  awk- 
ward title  used,  the  word  civil  being  dropped  so 
that  the  Mechanical  Engineer  became  an  indi- 
vidual. The  first  mining  men  who  called  them- 
selves engineers  were  Mining  Civil  Engineers,  but 
it  was  a  cumbersome  title  soon  abandoned  for  that 
of  Mining  Engineer,  or  Engineer  of  Mines.  The 
Electrical  Engineer  was  an  electrician  when  that 
science  first  came  into  prominence  and  the  Elec- 
trical Engineer  as  such  did  not  appear  upon  the 
scene  until  about  seventy-five  years  after  the 
Mechanical  Engineer  dropped  the  word  civil  from 
his  title. 

" Farther  than  runneth  the  memory  of  man," 
every  nation  had  schools  for  the  training  of  mili- 
tary engineers  and  the  professors  were  men  who 
wrote  many  books  so  that  some  of  the  rules  of  con- 
struction followed  to-day  date  back  several  cen- 


10  ENGINEERING  AS   A   VOCATION 

turies.  The  first  school,  however,  to  teach  the  new 
profession  of  civil  engineering,  as  such,  with  the 
degree  of  Civil  Engineer,  was  the  Eensselaer  Poly- 
technic Institute  of  Troy,  K  Y.,  founded  in  1826. 
It  has  had  a  most  successful  career  and  is  to-day  a 
leading  school,  courses  in  mechanical  engineering 
and  electrical  engineering  having  been  added 
within  the  last  five  years.  Engineers  have  not 
been  particularly  impressed  with  the  value  of  the 
history  of  their  profession  and  all  the  facts  are 
not  exactly  known,  or  are  not  easily  accessible.  It 
is  believed  that  the  second  civil  engineering  school 
was  established  in  France  a  year  or  two  after  the 
establishment  of  the  Eensselaer  Polytechnic  Insti- 
tute in  Troy,  although  the  famous  Ecole  des  Ponts 
et  Chausses  for  the  training  of  engineers  to  care 
for  the  French  highways,  was  essentially  a  civil 
engineering  school,  the  military  school  of  St.  Cyr 
educating  military  engineers  and  artillerymen. 
Between  1830  and  1840  the  University  of  Glasgow, 
Scotland,  established  a  course  in  mathematics  and 
the  natural  sciences  for  the  theoretical  training  of 
young  gentlemen  apprenticed  to  civil  engineers, 
and  from  this  school  was  graduated  William  John 
Macquorne  Rankine.  Rankine  practised  as  a  civil 
engineer  for  several  years  and,  in  1856,  upon  the 
retirement  of  the  great  Professor  Gordon,  suc- 
ceeded him  as  professor  of  civil  engineering. 
Rankine  was  a  phenomenal  man  who  wrote  many 
books  covering  the  entire  field  of  engineering, 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  11 

establishing  it  upon  a  sound  basis  as  a  mathemat- 
ical science.  There  were  many  great  investigators 
and  writers  on  engineering  subjects  in  Europe, 
especially  in  France  and  Germany,  whose  work  he 
made  free  use  of,  but  by  all  of  these  men  he  was 
looked  up  to  as  a  leader  and  might  be  said  to  have 
been  the  father  of  the  civil  engineer.  Before  his 
time  the  engineer  " picked  up"  his  education  and 
received  his  theoretical  and  scientific  knowledge 
as  best  he  could  while  burning  the  midnight  lamp. 
Kankine  made  it  possible  to  study  engineering  with 
the  least  loss  of  time  and  wasted  effort.  The  fourth 
school  of  civil  engineering  was  Union  College,  now 
Union  University,  Schenectady,  N".  Y. 

In  Great  Britain  it  was  the  custom  for  many 
years,  which  custom  has  not  entirely  died  out,  to 
apprentice  boys  to  some  engineer  for  a  definite 
term  of  years,  paying  a  fee  for  the  privilege,  the 
amount  of  the  fee  being  governed  by  the  degree  of 
eminence  of  the  engineer.  The  boys  were  sup- 
posed to  receive  practical  instruction  through 
helping  around  the  office  and  out  in  the  field  or 
in  the  works,  becoming  engineers  through  the 
operation  of  a  gradual  " soaking  in"  process.  The 
schools  were  so  conducted  as  to  give  one,  two,  or 
three  years'  instruction  for  a  few  months  each 
year  in  mathematics  and  science,  to  enable  the 
"articled"  pupil  to  acquire  the  theoretical  knowl- 
edge he  actually  needed.  Since  the  instruction 
given  at  the  schools  was  wholly  along  theoretical 


12  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

lines  it  was  not  looked  upon  with  much  favor,  the 
British  being  a  great  people  to  laud  practical  (  ?) 
methods.  Some  of  the  old  feeling  against  schools 
crops  out  once  in  a  while,  but  the  majority  of  the 
British  engineering  schools  to-day  are  not  very 
different  in  aims  and  methods  from  the  schools  of 
other  countries. 

In  continental  Europe  young  engineers  received 
all  their  theoretical  instruction  in  schools  having 
five-  and  six-year  courses  before  going  into  prac- 
tical work.  To-day  a  certain  amount  of  practical 
work,  or  shop  training,  is  insisted  upon  as  a  pre- 
requisite to  graduation,  this  work  being  sand- 
wiched between  school  years.  In  the  United  States 
the  apprentice  system  was  never  in  favor  and  the 
schools  in  this  country  from  the  first  endeavored 
to  complete  the  scholastic  training  of  the  students 
before  they  went  into  practice.  Engineers  were  in 
demand  and  for  a  great  many  years  the  schools 
could  not  turn  them  out  fast  enough,  so  there  was 
lacking  the  intense  thoroughness  of  the  German 
and  Frenchman  and  the  practical  training  of  the 
Briton.  The  differences  in  methods  of  instruc- 
tion f ormerly  common  in  the  schools  of  different 
countries  were  well  illustrated  in  a  remark  made 
by  a  prominent  educator  a  few  years  ago  to  the 
effect  that  the  British  engineer  was  a  technically 
trained  mechanic,  the  continental  European 
engineer  a  technically  trained  scientist  and  the 
American  engineer  a  technically  trained  busi- 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  13 

ness  man.  It  was  said  that  these  differences  were 
plainly  shown  in  South  Africa  and  other  frontiers 
of  civilization  where  the  British  engineer  was  an 
outside  superintendent  at  good  pay  bossing  labor- 
ers ;  the  continental  engineers  were  in  the  drafting 
office  and  computing  desk  getting  much  less  pay 
and  the  American  engineer  was  drawing  a  large 
salary  as  general  manager.  Actually  such  a  view 
of  the  matter  was  a  most  unjust  slur  on  the 
engineers  trained  in  British,  German  and  French 
schools.  In  those  countries  no  railway  was  built  or 
any  great  public  work  undertaken  until  it  was 
deemed  a  necessity.  When  decided  upon  it  could 
not  be  started  until  many  tedious  legal  formalities 
and  governmental  requirements  had  been  complied 
with.  It  was  not  a  gamble,  and,  therefore,  no 
expense  was  spared  to  make  it  permanent.  The 
young  men  trained  in  the  schools  of  such  countries 
naturally  were  drilled  in  methods  that  were  hardly 
adapted  to  pioneer  countries  where  every  railway 
and  other  enterprise  was  a  gamble  and  the  item 
of  first  cost  most  important.  Americans  have  never 
been  particularly  noted  for  willing  acquiescence  in 
regulations  of  any  sort  that  interfere  with  a  man 
doing  as  he  pleases,  so,  of  course,  American 
engineers  were  the  best  for  newly  exploited  coun- 
tries. In  old  countries  the  idea  of  having  to  rebuild 
anything  is  viewed  with  horror.  In  the  United 
States,  especially  the  United  States  of  a  couple  of 
generations  ago,  the  very  cheapest  work  was 


14  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

wanted  as  it  was  believed  the  profits  would  enable 
the  work  to  be  done  over  in  a  few  years  if  neces- 
sary. The  differences,  therefore,  between  the 
engineers  of  the  different  countries  were  not  due 
wholly  to  the  training  received  in  schools,  but  were 
due  primarily  to  environment,  heredity,  custom 
and  habit. 

To-day  engineers  in  all  countries  read  and 
study  papers  and  books  written  by  men  in  other 
countries.  Translators  are  busy  everywhere  so 
that  each  week  the  up-to-date  engineer  receives  by 
mail  a  paper  containing  an  account  of  everything 
of  value  to  him  in  his  own  and  other  countries. 
The  schools  are  gradually  getting  together  and 
there  is  very  little  difference  between  first-class 
schools,  whether  they  are  in  England,  Germany, 
France,  Belgium,  Sweden,  Italy,  Austria,  Eussia, 
ffctpa^i,  Argentine  or  in  the  United  States.  In  all 
will  be  found  the  leading  works  of  the  leading 
instructors  in  all  countries  and  Rankine's  works 
have  been  translated  into  many  languages  and  have 
formed  the  basis  of  hundreds  of  standard  text 
books. 

Considerable  criticism  of  engineering  schools 
is  heard.  "  What  is  the  trouble  with  our  engineer- 
ing schools  ?"  is  a  cry  frequently  heard,  but  if  there 
in  any  trouble  it  is  farther  back  and  the  cry  should 
be  "What  is  the  trouble  of  our  engineering 
schools?"  The  answer  being  "The  false  ideals 
and  the  lack  of  consistency  and  coordination  in  the 


ENGINEEKING  AS  A  VOCATION  15 

public  schools.'9  It  is  not  fair  to  expect  the 
engineering  schools  of  the  United  States  to  take 
that  illy-digested  product,  the  average  grammar 
or  high  school  graduate,  with  his  smattering  of 
many  things,  including  plain  sewing,  and  expect 
to  get  as  perfect  a  product  in  the  way  of  an  edu- 
cated man  as  the  German  schools  turn  out.  Much 
of  the  criticism,  however,  of  our  engineering 
schools  is  a  survival  of  the  days  when  few 
engineers  were  school  bred  and  a  college  education 
was  not  common.  No  employer  cared  to  have  in  his 
employ  a  man  better  educated  than  himself,  for 
they  were  autocratic,  were  the  successful  men  of 
the  days  of  our  fathers  and  grandfathers.  The 
old  practical  (so-called)  engineer  was  preferred 
whenever  an  engineer  was  employed.  A  strong 
stream  of  engineering  graduates  has  been  poured 
out  over  the  world  within  the  past  thirty  years 
and  numbers  of  them  have  deserted  technical  (pro- 
fessional technical)  engineering  to  go  into  con- 
tracting and  manufacturing.  Their  success  has 
been  so  marked  that  the  heads  of  the  largest  manu- 
facturing establishments  and  the  heads  of  the  most 
progressive  contracting  companies  are  men  who 
received  engineering  educations.  If  their  training 
had  not  been  as  practical  as  it  is  possible  to  make 
school  training,  they  would  not  have  succeeded. 
Some  men  ask  that  the  school  courses  be  made  more 
practical  and  yet  are  unable  to  explain  just  what 
they  mean.  Some  are  merely  echoing  an  old  com- 


16  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

plaint  and  some  graduates  are  crying  from  disap- 
pointment, when,  perhaps,  the  school  was  not 
responsible.  Accidents  of  birth  have  much  to  do 
with  lack  of  success  in  life.  No  school  can  supply 
a  man  with  common  sense  and  intelligence  if  these 
very  desirable  qualities  were  omitted  in  his  make- 
up, but  education  can  do  much  to  enable  one  to 
make  good  use  of  all  the  intelligence  he  may  have. 
The  modern  engineer  must  have  a  college  train- 
ing or  something  that  is  equivalent.  The  equiva- 
lent is  very,  very  hard  to  obtain.  Teaching  is  a 
distinct  profession  and  the  practising  engineer 
cannot  always  obtain  the  viewpoint  of  the  teach- 
ing engineer.  The  curricula  of  the  numerous 
engineering  schools  bear  a  very  close  resemblance 
to  each  other,  yet  many  men  have  taken  positions 
as  professors  with  the  idea  of  revolutionizing  mat- 
ters. Many  of  these  men  have  had  the  privilege 
of  organizing  new  schools  in  old  colleges  and  uni- 
versities and  have  had,  some  of  them,  the  oppor- 
tunity to  start  out  on  new  lines  in  entirely  new 
institutions  unhampered  by  traditions.  With  the 
free  hand  given  them  and  the  splendid  opportunity 
offered  for  reform  it  is  significant  that  the  courses 
in  such  schools  gradually  bear  a  very  strong  resem- 
blance to  those  in  older  schools.  All  heads  of 
engineering  schools  pay  great  attention  to  old 
graduates  and  the  average  engineering  school  of 
to-day,  with  all  its  reputed  shortcomings  is  really 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  17 

the  product  of  the  alumnae,  much  as  some  of  them 
will  dispute  it. 

There  is  really  nothing  serious  the  matter  with 
our  engineering  schools  that  will  not  be  corrected 
in  time.  The  Society  for  the  Promotion  of 
Engineering  Education  is  doing  good  work  and 
many  eminent  practising  engineers  belong  to  this 
society,  which  invites  helpful  criticism.  If  any- 
thing is  a  fault  with  the  training  given  in  the 
schools  it  is  that  many  schools  have  paid  entirely 
too  much  attention  to  outside  criticism  and  the 
students  are  narrowly  trained  specialists,  who 
have  been  cheated  in  their  unfortunate  attempt  to 
get  a  proper  education.  However,  this  does  not 
belong  in  the  chapter  which  is  supposed  merely  to 
define  the  engineer.  In  a  later  chapter  the  subject 
of  the  scholastic  training  of  the  engineer  will  be 
discussed.  This  present  chapter  has  defined  the 
engineer  in  the  words  of  two  eminent  engineers. 
A  third  definition  is  by  some  unknown  and  reads  : 
"An  engineer  is  a  compound  of  common  sense  and 
mathematics.  If  he  has  not  enough  mathematics 
his  lot  in  life  will  be  hard.  If  he  has  not  enough 
common  sense  God  pity  him." 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  WORK  OF  THE  ENGINEER 

THE  old-time  civil  engineer,  before  lie  was 
known  by  that  title,  built  roads  and  bridges  and 
helped  architects  erect  great  buildings.  During 
the  middle  ages  when  the  wonderful  cathedrals  and 
monumental  bridges  of  Europe  were  built,  the 
greatest  architects  were  engineers  and  often  pre- 
ferred to  be  called  engineers.  Some  were  able  mili- 
tary engineers  and  conducted  many  campaigns  and 
great  sieges  of  history.  Leonardi  da  Vinci  was  an 
architect,  an  engineer,  a  painter  and  sculptor;  of 
commanding  rank  in  each  calling.  The  knowledge 
of  the  world  was  not  so  great  in  those  days,  but 
that  one  man  could  know  practically  all  that  was 
necessary  in  many  callings. 

For  a  long  period  architecture  was  a  sleeping 
art  for  nothing  new  was  developed  and  the  archi- 
tects grew  proud  and  drew  away  from  the 
engineers  and  courted  the  society  of  artists.  Archi- 
tects were  delighted  when  their  art  was  called 
" frozen  music,"  little  recking  that  things  are  gen- 
erally dead  when  frozen.  For  centuries  architects 
did  nothing  but  measure  and  copy  and  try  to 
develop  schools  without  placing  proper  emphasis 

on  the  fact  that  architecture  is  "The  art  of  build- 
is 


ENGINEERING   AS   A   VOCATION  19 

ing  pleasingly."  To  build  pleasingly  the  material 
must  be  recognized.  The  long  spans  of  Grecian 
architraves  were  possible  with  the  strong  stone 
used  by  the  Greeks  and  imitations  in  the  weaker 
limestones  and  sandstones  of  other  countries  were 
but  imitations  after  all,  beautiful  as  some  were. 
The  greatest  buildings  were  erected  and  archi- 
tecture made  advances  only  when  the  engineer  and 
architect  worked  together  or  were  one  and  the 
same  person.  With  the  invention  of  the  steel- 
framed  building,  the  introduction  of  reinforced 
concrete  and  structural  tile,  all  due  to  the  engineer, 
architecture  has  been  reborn  and  the  moderns,  in 
America,  at  least,  are  developing  styles  which  will 
some  day  eventuate  in  something  as  good  as  the 
Greek  pillar  and  lintel,  the  arch  of  the  Etruscans 
and  Romans  and  the  pillared  vaults  of  the  Goths. 
Since  the "  engineer  has  joined  hands  with  the 
unwilling  architect  there  is  no  limit  to  the  possi- 
bilities of  realizing  dreams  and  embodying  them 
in  lasting  materials. 

The  old-time  civil  engineer  also  improved 
rivers  and  harbors  and  constructed  canals.  This 
ends  the  list  of  his  achievements.  He,  of  course, 
had  to  know  how  to  make  surveys  so  he  could  lay 
out  his  work  and  make  estimates  of  cost  and  pre- 
pare plans.  It  is  well  known  that  the  science  of 
geometry  arose  from  the  necessity  for  recovering 
land  lines  and  boundaries  buried  in  the  mud  at 
the  times  of  the  annual  rises  of  the  Mle.  The 


20  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

geometers  (earth  measurers),  land  surveyors  or 
engineers,  call  them  what  you  please,  were  always 
employed  to  set  out  work  and  no  doubt  from  very 
early  times  surveying  was  a  large  part  of  the  work 
of  practical  builders,  architects  and  contractors, 
later  of  engineers.  The  old-time  civil  engineer  had 
to  be  a  draftsman  also,  for  drafting  is  a  universal 
language  understood  alike  by  the  trained  engineer, 
the  architect  and  the  building  mechanic.  The  sur- 
veyor had  also  to  be  a  draftsman  in  order  to 
make  maps  of  his  surveys.  To  be  a  good  surveyor 
and  draftsman  implied  a  good  knowledge  of 
mathematics.  The  student  in  a  modern  American 
high  school  receives  more  instruction  in  mathe- 
matics than  the  best  engineer  of  two  hundred  years 
ago.  The  old-time  engineer  then  was  a  man  of 
ingenuity  and  common  sense  with  little  mathe- 
matics. The  engineer  of  to-day  must  have  fully  as 
much  ingenuity  and  common  sense  as  the  engineer 
of  olden  time,  together  with  much  more  mathe- 
matics. 

Hero  of  Alexandria  is  styled  the  first  engineer 
of  recorded  history.  He  invented  a  fountain  and  a 
steam  engine,  besides  many  other  things  of  service 
to  mankind,  although  his  steam  engine  remained 
a  toy  and  the  principle  has  only  lately  been  applied 
in  the  turbine  engine,  which  is  regarded  by  many 
as  the  coming  engine.  His  writings  consisted  of 
fourteen  books  treating  on  the  whole  of  practical 
surveying  and  construction  work  as  they  were 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  21 

understood  in  those  early  days,  but  all  the  books 
did  not  survive  the  numerous  wars  and  raids  of 
the  intervening  years.  A  book  in  the  days  of  the 
ancients  was  generally  about  as  full  as  a  thin 
pamphlet  or  a  chapter  in  a  modern  book.  The 
author  of  fourteen  books  hardly  wrote  as  much  as 
the  author  of  a  ten-chapter  treatise  on  the  design 
of  a  plate  girder  to-day.  Be  this  as  it  may,  Hero 
is  reputed  to  be  the  author  of  fourteen  books  which 
for  some  centuries  were  a  veritable  cyclopedia  of 
engineering  and  of  these  books  we  have  only  his 
surveying  in  full,  with  parts  of  three  or  four  other 
books.  His  treatise  on  surveying  contains  many 
of  the  problems  taught  to-day  and  his  methods  of 
solution  are  unchanged,  except  as  changes  have 
been  made  by  the  introduction  of  algebra  and 
trigonometry,  two  subjects  of  which  the  ancients 
knew  nothing.  Hero  was  not  regarded  highly  by 
his  brother  mathematicians  in  Alexandria  because 
he  believed  in  " practical,  applied"  mathematics 
and  wrote  books  for  the  purpose  of  educating  the 
common  herd.  He  profaned  a  most  noble  science 
when  he  disclosed  the  grave  secrets  of  the  mathe- 
maticians and  made  a  science  of  what  was  a 
philosophy.  It  is  said  that  to-day  the  first  toast 
at  the  annual  banquet  of  a  certain  mathematical 
society  is  " Here's  to  pure  mathematics.  Cursed 
be  he  who  attempts  to  find  use  for  it." 

Let  us  see  how  modern  this  wonderful  pro- 
fession of  engineering  is.    All  knowledge  of  stress 


22  ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION 

and  strain  was  empiric  up  to  a  very  late  date.  In 
1678,  Robert  Hooke  published  his  famous  law  of 
stress  and  deformation  in  materials,  namely,  "As 
the  extension,  so  is  the  resistance,"  which  he 
claimed  to  have  discovered  eighteen  years  pre- 
viously and  kept  secret  for  the  purpose  of  obtain- 
ing some  patents.  It  is  still  termed  Hooke 's  Law, 
but  is  now  known  to  be  true  only  within  the  elastic 
limit  of  any  material.  Prom  that  date  until  1857, 
when  Saint- Venant  gave  a  complete  analysis  of 
the  strength  and  elasticity  of  beams,  engineers  fol- 
lowed many  strange  hypotheses,  which  they  digni- 
fied by  styling  them  theories,  and  tried  to  preserve 
many  individual  secrets.  Self-tutored  mechanics 
to-day  bring  forth  startling  ideas,  startling  at 
least  to  modern  engineers,  because  so  many  of  them 
read  reprints  of  books  written  fifty  and  sixty  years 
ago.  The  self-tutored  man  should  never  buy  a 
book  without  examining  the  copyright  page  for 
the  date.  [If  the  copyright  was  obtained  prior  to 
1895  he  should  not  purchase  the  bookj 

When  the  first  man  wanted  to  cross  a  river 
without  swimming  and  found  a  fallen  tree  span- 
ning from  bank  to  bank,  the  first  bridge  existed. 
It  may  have  been  many  centuries  before  the  human 
race  developed  to  a  point  where  it  was  possible  to 
fell  trees  and  build  bridges.  The  bridges  as  late 
as  Roman  times  were  built  of  horizontal  beams 
and  girders  resting  on  piles,  with  no  attempt  at 
intelligent  trussing.  That  is,  of  course,  wooden 


ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION  23 

bridges  were  so  built,  for  stone  and  brick  arch 
bridges  are  very  ancient.  In  the  course  of  time 
it  was  discovered  that  the  triangle  was  the  ideal 
form  of  framework  and  the  truss  was  developed. 
Bridge  building  became  the  work  of  a  craft,  like 
the  building  of  cathedrals,  and  men  went  all  over 
Europe  erecting  bridges,  yet  no  real  principles 
underlay  their  work,  which  consisted  in  a/cut-and- 
tryj  method  of  design.  The  art  of  building  truss 
bridges  developed  through  correction  of  errors  of 
judgment,  but  methods  for  computing  the  strength 
of  suspension  bridges  were  known  fairly  well  about 
1780.  When  railways  commenced  to  supplant 
navigable  canals  and  bridges  were  required  to 
carry  something  more  than  light  wagons  many 
strange  patents  were  obtained  for  trusses  com- 
bining the  principles  of  the  truss,  the  arch  and 
the  chain. 

In  the  summer  of  1846  a  Yankee  school  teacher, 
Squire  Whipple,  sat  on  the  bank  of  a  stream  fish- 
ing and  idly  watching  some  carpenters  repairing  a 
wooden  highway  bridge  close  by.  The  school 
teacher  learned  that  the  foreman  was  a  noted 
bridge  builder,  so  he  stopped  fishing  to  converse 
with  him.  It  was  with  considerable  surprise  that 
he  learned  there  was  no  certain  method  then 
known  for  calculating  stresses  in  bridge  trusses. 
Upon  his  return  home  Whipple  made  a  model  of 
the  bridge  with  small  pieces  of  wood,  joined  at  the 
angles  with  pins,  having  strings  for  counterbraces. 


24  ENGINEEKING  AS  A  VOCATION 

By  rolling  balls  in  grooves  along  the  top  chord  he 
discovered  how  the  frame  work  deflected  and  thus 
learned  how  to  design  a  bridge  to  carry  a  prede- 
termined load.  He  wrote  a  "  Practical  Treatise 
on  Bridge  Building,"  which  was  printed  in  Utica, 
1ST.  Y.,  in  1847.  In  1851,  Haupt,  in  America,  and 
Bow,  in  England,  produced  books  on  bridge  design, 
the  forerunners  of  a  literature  which  justifies  one 
in  saying  with  the  old  Hebrew  "Of  the  making 
of  books  there  is  no  end." 

Tramways  were  first  built  in  England  about 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  for  the  purpose  of 
transporting  coal  from  collieries  to  the  sea.  They 
were  first  made  of  two  lines  of  flat  stones  to  afford 
a  track  for  the  wagons.  Civil  engineers,  or  rather 
surveyors,  were  employed  to  secure  proper  curves 
and  grades.  Longitudinal  timbers  enabled  heavier 
loads  to  be  drawn  and  when  iron  rails  were  placed 
on  the  timbers,  thus  further  reducing  resistance 
and  wear  and  permitting  still  heavier  loads  to  be 
drawn,  the  tramways  became  railways.  The  first 
rails  were  channeled,  or  grooved,  and  it  was~a 
stroke  of  real  genius  when  some  man  used  a  plain 
rail  and  put  the  flange  on  the  wheel.  It  effected 
great  economy  and  was  very  simple,  but  then  the 
really  great  things  in  this  world  are  very  simple  in 
their  inception.  In  1821  the  Stockton  and  Dar- 
lington Railway  was  incorporated  in  England,  this 
road  being  operated  by  steam  locomotives  in  1825. 

The  success  of  the  steam  locomotive  caused  a 


ENGINEERING   AS  A  VOCATION  25 

boom  in  railway  building  and  the  demand  for  civil 
engineers  was  so  great  that  for  many  years  it  was 
almost  impossible  to  find  enough  to  go  around.  At 
the  same  time  the  need  for  skilled  designers  of 
engines  and  machinery  led  the  mechanical 
engineers  to  form  a  distinct  body  as  distinguished 
from  civil  engineers.  The  old  distinction  between 
civil  and  military  engineers  was  lost  forever  and 
to-day  we  have  engineers.  The  old  qualifying 
terms  remain  but  the  lines,  for  a  time  so  distinct, 
are  each  day  becoming  fainter.  The  real  dis- 
tinction now  exists  as  between  engineers  who 
design  and  build  stable  structures  and  those  who 
design,  build  and  sell  engines  and  machines. 

By  common  consent  the  man  who  is  to-day 
known  as  a  civil  engineer  is  one  who  deals  with 
statics,  and  the  man  who  is  known  as  a  mechanical 
engineer  is  one  who  deals  with  kinetics,  the  elec- 
trical engineer  being  a  cross  between  a  physicist 
and  a  mechanical  engineer,  having  a  marked  strain 
of  conceit  common  to  youth ;  the  electrical  engineer 
being  comparatively  an  infant,  but  very  husky. 
Mechanics  is  that  part  of  the  science  of  dynamics 
which  treats  of  the  laws  governing  the  interaction 
between  forces  and  solid  matter.  Statics  is  a 
branch  of  mechanics  treating  of  the  action  of 
forces  upon  bodies  at  rest,  or  in  a  state  of  static 
equilibrium ;  that  is,  of  balanced  forces.  Kinetics 
is  a  branch  of  mechanics  treating  of  the  action  of 
unbalanced  forces  and  the  movement  of  solid 


26  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

bodies.  Statics,  therefore,  applies  to  bridges  and 
all  stationary  frames,  as  well  as  embankments, 
retaining  walls,  river  and  canal  improvements,  etc. 
Kinetics  deals  with  engines  and  machines. 

In  hydraulics  the  engineer  has  been  employed 
from  time  immemorial.  At  first  his  employment 
on  harbor  work  was  in  the  government  service, 
connected  with  the  navy,  but  later  he  was  employed 
as  a  civil  engineer  to  design  and  build  harbors  for 
vessels  of  commerce.  Centuries  of  dock  and  wharf 
building  developed  rules  and  styles  which  have  not 
been  much  changed  by  the  advance  in  scientific 
instruction  of  engineers  in  the  past  century.  Navi- 
gable canals  were  for  a  time  the  great  training 
schools  for  engineers,  but  they  are  everywhere  giv- 
ing way  to  railways,  except  where  interested  agita- 
tion keeps  alive  public  interest  in  old-fashioned 
things.  A  few  canals  are  kept  up  at  enormous 
expense  to  satisfy  artificially  created  public 
demands,  supposedly  to  act  as  a  deterrant  upon 
railway  rates.  Sentiment,  however,  rather  than 
common  sense  business  principles,  keeps  the  small 
navigable  canal  in  existence.  The  present  day 
hydraulic  engineer  finds  his  chief  employment  in 
the  design,  construction  and  operation  of  water 
works  for  towns  and  cities ;  canals,  reservoirs  and 
dams  for  irrigation;  canals  and  ditches  for  land 
drainage;  the  improvement  and  regulation  of 
rivers. 

The  first  writer  of  note  on  public  water  supplies 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  27 

was  Sextus  Julius  Frontinus,  water  commissioner 
in  Rome  during  the  reigns  of  Nerva  and  Trajan. 
He  possessed  a  shrewd  knowledge  of  the  flow  of 
fluids,  but  hardly  more  than  that  which  any  observ- 
ing man  may  pick  up  by  working  around  a  water 
works  system  to-day.  In  1628  Castelli  published  a 
small  pamphlet  on  the  flow  of  fluids,  followed  in 
1643  by  a  pamphlet  giving  more  important  dis- 
coveries. In  1828  Fourneyron  invented  the  turbine 
and  from  that  time  to  this  important  discoveries 
on  the  flow  of  water  have  been  announced  at 
intervals.  The  past  twenty-five  years  have  seen 
the  knowledge  respecting  the  flow  of  water  placed 
on  nearly  as  satisfactory  a  basis  as  a  knowledge  of 
the  stresses  in  structures,  although  for  fifty  years 
prior  enough  was  known  to  enable  engineers  to 
carry  out  great  hydraulic  works  with  reasonable 
certainty  and  economy. 

Hydraulic  engineers  were  formerly  employed 
in  large  numbers  on  the  design  and  construction 
of  power  plants  operated  by  water  wheels.  After 
the  introduction  of  the  steam  engine  the  water 
wheel  declined  in  importance  and  many  mills 
replaced  their  hydraulic  plant  with  steam  plants. 
To-day  the  hydraulic  engineer  is  again  in  demand 
to  design  and  erect  water  power  installations  in 
which  the  wheel  picks  up  the  power  from  falling 
water  and  carries  it  to  huge  electric  generators, 
to  be  converted  into  electricity  which  is  easily 
transmitted  for  long  distances.  The  term 


28  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

" Hydraulic  Engineer"  is  now  borne  by  three 
classes  of  engineers : 

Hydraulic  civil  engineers  are  skilled  in  the  sur- 
vey, planning,  designing  and  construction  of 
canals,  dams  and  power  houses ;  also  in  the  design, 
construction  and  operation  of  water  works  for 
municipalities,  irrigation  and  drainage  projects. 

Hydraulic  mechanical  engineers  are  skilled  in 
the  design  and  construction  of  all  kinds  of 
hydraulic  machinery,  including  hydraulic  presses, 
water  wheels,  turbines,  etc. 

Hydraulic  electrical  engineers  are  skilled  in  the 
design,  installation  and  operation  of  hydro-electric 
plants. 

The  sanitary  engineer  is  an  important  man 
to-day  and  his  value  to  the  community  is  increas- 
ing. He  may  be  employed  to  design  and  construct 
systems  for  the  sewering  of  municipalities  and  the 
purification  of  sewage,  and  he  may  be  employed  to 
design  and  construct  water  works  systems  and 
plants  to  purify  water.  The  tendency,  however, 
is  marked  to  limit  the  sanitary  engineer  to  the 
design  and  construction  of  plants  to  purify  sewage 
and  domestic  water  supplies. 

The  municipal  engineer  is  charged  with  the 
planning  and  construction  of  water  works,  sewer- 
age systems  and  street  improvements  within  the 
corporate  limits  of  municipalities.  For  the  puri- 
fication of  sewage  or  water  he  calls  in  the  consult- 
ing sanitary  engineer  and  for  the  bringing  of  the 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  29, 

water  to  the  city  limits  he  calls  in  the  hydraulic 
civil  engineer.  If  large  pumping  stations  are 
required  he  employs  the  hydraulic  mechanical 
engineer.  For  the  ordinary  work  required  in  the 
average  town  and  city  the  local  municipal  engineer 
is  usually  competent,  if  his  training  has  been  broad 
and  of  the  approved  kind.  One  defect  in  many 
cities  is  the  employment  of  imperfectly  trained 
men  of  limited  experience  because  they  work  for 
low  pay.  The  position  of  the  average  town  and 
city  engineer  is  not  enviable,  for  his  office  is  the 
prey  of  politics. 

On  a  railway  the  civil  engineer  surveys  the 
routes,  makes  estimates  of  cost  and  constructs  the 
lines.  He  designs  all  buildings  and  terminal  yards 
and  on  many  roads  designs  all  the  bridges,  while 
on  other  roads  he  merely  prepares  specifications 
for  the  design  of  bridges  and  supervises  their 
erection.  Maintenance-of-way  engineers  have 
charge  of  the  upkeep  of  the  railway,  look  after 
repairs  and  in  general  have  charge  of  all  renewals 
and  reconstruction.  The  engineering  department 
is  almost  wholly  connected  with  the  surveying  and 
construction  of  new  lines,  the  maintenance-of-way 
department  being  separate.  Some  old  railways 
have  no  chief  engineer,  the  maintenance-of-way 
department  doing  all  the  civil  engineering  work, 
for  these  roads  make  no  important  extensions. 
The  mechanical  engineer  on  a  railway  has  charge 
of  the  purchase  and  repair  of  rolling  stock  and  all 


30  ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION 

machinery;  and  machines  required  in  the  repair 
of  machinery.  The  mechanical  engineer  also  pre- 
pares specifications  for  such  equipment  as  the  rail- 
way may  have  made  to  order  or  purchases  under 
contract. 

Bridge  engineering  is  practically  a  distinct 
profession,  for  many  companies  are  engaged 
exclusively  in  the  design  and  erection  of  bridges 
for  railways  and  highways. 

Structural  engineering  is  also  a  distinct  pro- 
fession for  few  important  buildings  are  erected 
to-day  without  steel  or  reinforced  concrete  frame- 
work and  floor  systems. 

Numbers  of  men  trained  as  engineers  go  into 
surveying  work,  but  not  so  many  that  it  is  right  to 
say  "A  civil  engineer  is  nothing  but  a  surveyor," 
as  so  many  illy-informed  or  mendacious  mechanical 
and  electrical  engineers  remark  to  parents  who 
make  inquiries  with  reference  to  selecting  careers 
for  their  sons.  Some  surveyors  work  for  the  gov- 
ernment and  are  employed  in  making  accurate 
surveys  for  the  purpose  of  marking  national  boun- 
daries, determining  the  size  and  shape  of  the  earth, 
topographical  surveys  as  a  basis  for  the  develop- 
ment of  sections  of  a  country,  etc.  Some  engineers 
go  into  private  practice  and  specialize  on  surveys 
for  determining  land  lines,  settling  property  dis- 
putes, setting  grades  for  ditches,  for  drainage  or 
irrigation,  etc.  Others  work  all  their  lives  for 
railways  and  other  corporations,  running  instru- 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  31 

ments,  making  maps  and  doing  work  of  a  similar 
nature  in  the  development  work  upon  which  all 
such  corporations  are  engaged.  This  latter  class 
does  not  receive  steady  employment,  the  unfor- 
tunate wanderers  never  knowing  how  long  a  job 
will  last  and  not  receiving  very  high  pay. 

The  United  States  Government  is  doing  a  great 
deal  of  work  in  connection  with  irrigation  develop- 
ment and  within  a  very  few  years  the  drainage  ques- 
tion has  assumed  wonderful  importance.  A  num- 
ber of  young  graduates  enter  government  employ 
each  year  in  the  irrigation  and  drainage  depart- 
ments. Numbers  of  companies  are  engaged  in  pri- 
vate irrigation  and  land  drainage  enterprises,  but 
the  employment  is  uncertain  and  the  pay  poor. 

The  demand  for  improved  highways  has  led 
to  the  formation  of  an  important  department.  The 
Bureau  of  Road  Inquiry  conducts  investigations 
and  gives  free  information  on  the  subject,  besides, 
giving  young  engineering  graduates  special  train- 
ing in  highway  work,  in  order  to  prepare  them  to 
enter  the  employ  of  states  in  which  highway 
improvement  is  a  live  issue.  The  pay  for  the  rank 
and  file  is  low,  but  state  highway  commissioners 
generally  receive  high  salaries,  which  means  a 
mingling  of  politics  and  efficiency,  generally  to  the 
impairment  of  the  latter. 

Members  of  the  Engineer  Corps  of  the  United 
States  Army  are  educated  at  West  Point,  the  man 
standing  at  the  head  of  the  graduating  class  being 


32  ENGINEEEING  AS  A  VOCATION 

sent  for  a  post-graduate  course  to  an  advanced 
engineering  school.  Civil  engineers  in  the  United 
States  Navy,  in  charge  of  navy  yards,  etc.,  are 
selected  after  severe  competitive  examinations 
from  graduates  of  good  civil  engineering  schools. 
Naval  engineers  and  naval  architects  are  graduates 
of  Annapolis  who  stand  at,  or  near,  the  head  of  the 
graduating  class  and  are  then  sent  to  special 
schools  for  more  instruction. 

The  greatest  opportunities  for  engineering 
graduates  to-day  lie  in  the  field  of  contracting  and 
general  construction  work  and  the  best  training  for 
this  employment  is  to  be  had  in  the  civil  engineer- 
ing and  mining  engineering  courses. 

The  four  great  divisions  of  engineering,  mili- 
tary and  naval  engineers  being  ranked  merely  as 
engineers,  are: 

Civil  Engineering, 
Mining  Engineering, 
Mechanical  Engineering, 
Electrical  Engineering. 

mm 

Each  is  divided  into  numerous  specialties,  but 
the  young  man  who  takes  a  specialty  in  one  of 
the  above  branches  makes  a  mistake,  unless  he  is 
preparing  himself  to  fit  into  a  certain  position 
already  provided. 

Every  engineer  ends  by  specializing  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent.  This  is  unavoidable  in  the  conduct 
of  the  work  of  the  world,  but  the  fundamentals  are 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  33 

the  same  in  all  branches  and  for  every  specialty  in 
each  branch.  For  the  average  graduate  several 
years  must  elapse  before  a  permanent  line  of  work 
is  entered  upon.  Frequently  this  is  not  along  the 
line  of  the  specialty  selected  while  at  school.  It  is 
an  axiom  with  experienced  engineers  that  the 
specialty  selects  the  man  by  a  process  of  chance, 
rather  than  the  man  the  specialty. 

^Knowing  this  it  seems  the  height  of  absurdity 
for  schools,  as  many  do,  to  require  a  student  upon 
the  completion  of  his  freshman  year  to  make  a 
selection  for  the  following  three  years'  work  from 
a  bewildering  list  of  specialties,  when  he  has  not 
really  made  up  his  mind  as  to  why  he  chose  the 
hard  engineering  course  instead  of  the  easy  courses 
in  which  memory,  rather  than  reasoning  ability, 
enables  one  to  secure  high  marks  and  make  the 
honorary  fraternities. 

The  writer  does  not  decry  any  desire  on  the 
part  of  ambitious  young  men  to  pursue  some 
special  subject  after  adequate  preparation,  pro- 
vided this  is  done  in  the  same  way  that  a  man 
collects  stamps,  becomes  a  high-grade  amateur 
photographer,  or  pursues  any  other  hobby.  A 
specialty,  after  adequate  preparation,  selected  in 
such  manner  is  a  splendid  thing  and  if  the  student 
finally  makes  it  pay  well  he  is  to  be  congratulated. 
A  specialty  selected  after  a  supposedly  due  con- 
sideration of  the  question,  "  Which  specialty  do 
you  think  pays  best?"  is  frequently,  in  fact,  gen- 


34  ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION 

erally  disappointing.  Proper  consideration  must 
be  paid  to  other  inclinations  than  the  desire  to 
earn  money. 

The  following  clipping  from  The  Chicago 
Tribune  shows  the  point  of  view  of  practically 
all  newspaper  writers  on  the  subject  of  the  pro- 
fession of  the  engineer.  This  was  taken  from  a 
page  containing  advertisements  of  schools,  some 
technical  schools  being  represented,  but,  of  course, 
this  fact  cannot  be  supposed  to  have  influenced 
the  writer  of  the  article  clipped : 

FUTURE  DEMANDS  TRAINED  ENGINEERS 

The  field  for  the  labors  of  the  engineer — constructive  or 
electrical — are  practically  unlimited.  The  student  graduating 
from  the  accredited  technical  school  is  assured  of  good  posi- 
tions months  before  he  graduates.  Indeed,  it  is  a  true 
embarrassment  of  riches  when,  as  is  repeated  yearly  with  the 
graduating  classes  of  every  technical  school,  the  youthful 
engineer  has  to  choose  between  several  enticing  and  profitable 
offers  of  employment  before  he  has  ceased  to  breathe  school- 
room air. 

Only  one  among  the  multiplied  advantages  of  engineering 
as  a  profession  compared  with  the  older  professions  of  medi- 
cine and  the  law,  is  that  the  young  engineer  is  entirely  and 
comfortably  self-supporting  from  the  beginning — earning  a 
good  salary  from  the  start.  The  technical  school  trained  engi- 
neer holds  the  world  in  his  hand.  Employers  are  waiting  for 
him.  Opportunities  for  ultimately  becoming  independent  or 
his  own  employer,  are  legion. 

There  does  exist  just  the  demand  mentioned 
in  the  article,  but  there  also  exists  a  demand  in 


ENGINEERING   AS  A  VOCATION  35 

the  business  world  for  stenographers,  clerks,  book- 
keepers, and  all  classes  of  employes  at  entering 
pay.  When  the  supply  is  large  many  employers 
have  no  hesitancy  in  dismissing  older  employes 
to  make  room  for  the  younger  men.  This  active 
demand  will  continue  just  as  long  as  the  supply 
is  continuous  of  fresh  young  men,  who  work  at 
low  pay  "to  gain  experience,"  hence  the  demand 
is  largely  artificial  and  fostered  by  the  readiness 
with  which  it  is  supplied.  A  large  employer  of 
engineering  graduates  told  the  writer  that  90  per 
cent,  of  his  work  was  of  such  a  nature  that  it  could 
be  acceptably  done  by  young  men,  with  little  or  no 
experience,  provided  with  a  good  technical  educa- 
tion. Consequently  he  did  not  pay  very  high 
salaries,  wages  he  termed  it,  for  there  was  a  con- 
stant supply  of  just  the  sort  of  men  he  wanted, 
and  at  the  first  signs  of  dissatisfaction  with  pay 
he  let  men  go.  This  fact  is  known  by  many  engi- 
neers to  satisfactorily  explain  the  standing  adver- 
tisements of  large  companies  for  draftsmen  and 
designers. 

The  following  advertisement  was  clipped  from 
another  page  of  The  Chicago  Tribune: 

SITUATION  WANTED— Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology  civil  engineering  graduate,  1911,  age 
26,  having  had  several  years'  business  experience 
as  a  bookkeeper  and  timekeeper  for  a  contracting 
firm,  desires  a  position  where  he  can  make  use  of 
his  training  and  experience;  salary  no  object. 
Address  N  206,  Tribune. 


CHAPTEE  III 

THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  ENGINEER 

engineering  course  comprises: 

Bight  years  grammar  school, 

Four  years  high  school, 

Four,  five  or  six  years  technical  school. 

The  standard  course  in  technical  schools  has 
been  four  years  in  length,  but  within  the  past  ten 
years  many  American  colleges  and  universities 
have  established  five-  and  six-year  courses.  Some 
have  done  this  in  order  to  give  the  students  more 
purely  cultural  studies  and  some  have  added  to 
the  courses  many  things  that  seem  to  be  essential 
nowadays  to  the  education  of  the  engineer  along 
professional  lines. 

In  all  colleges  and  universities  offering  a 
selection  of  courses  for  different  degrees  the  engi- 
neering courses  are  avoided  by  lazy  students  and 
"the  engineers"  are  looked  upon  as  being  the 
hardest  worked  students;  their  courses  the  most 
difficult.  If  a  man  cannot  undertake  such  a  train- 
ing as  is  above  outlined  he  had  better  go  into  a 
business  where  the  training  is  not  so  severe  and 
expensive,  for  an  engineering  education  costs  from 
two  thousand  dollars  up  to  any  amount  the  student 

,36 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  37 

may  be  able  to  secure  from  his  parents  or 
guardians.  By  giving  up  the  idea  of  studying 
engineering  the  man  not  perfectly  adapted  to  the 
work  will  help  the  profession  by  enabling  thou- 
sands of  illy-paid,  highly  educated  men  to  get  bet- 
ter pay  and  steadier  employment,  besides  giving 
them  more  zest  in  the  doing  of  their  work. 

While  the  regular  method  above  outlined  is  the 
very  best,  there  exist  splendid  opportunities  for 
the  men  who  missed  their  chance  earlier  in  life. 
For  such  men  good  courses  of  instruction  are 
given  by  some  reputable  correspondence  schools, 
evening  classes  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  evening  classes, 
in  high-grade  technical  schools,  and  in  a  few  pri- 
vate schools  giving  individual  instruction.  Young 
fellows  who  can  afford  the  time  to  go  to  college 
and  study  engineering  in  the  proper  manner  have 
no  place  in  these  schools  intended  solely  for  men 
who  missed  early  chances  and  now  want  instruction 
in  special  subjects.  The  man  who  works  by  day 
and  studies  in  odd  moments  cannot  possibly  cover 
properly  the  broad  and  comprehensive  schedule 
of  studies  provided  by  specialists  in  engineering- 
teaching  for  young  fellows  whose  sole  object,  when 
under  their  instruction,  is  to  prepare  for  their  life 
work. 

The  man  studying  under  the  severe  handicaps 
incident  to  earning  a  living  is  apt  to  be  hyper- 
critical and  has  neither  the  patience,  nor  the  time, 
to  take  up  any  study  from  which  he  sees  no  hope 


38  ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION 

of  immediate  financial  return.  Night  schools, 
therefore,  arrange  courses  of  study  to  meet  the 
needs  of  these  strictly  utilitarian  pupils.  The 
young  man  going  to  a  regular  resident  engineering 
school  makes  a  mistake  in  taking  up  a  specialty. 
The  man  who  later  in  life  endeavors  to  study  the 
things  he  feels  he  sorely  needs,  is  of  necessity  the 
most  narrow  of  specialists.  Occasionally  men  take 
up  one  subject  after  another  in  special  schools, 
gradually  getting  the  equivalent  of  a  fairly  com- 
plete engineering  education.  The  percentage, 
however,  is  small  and  the  result  of  the  widely 
advertised  special  courses  in  engineering  subjects 
has  been  to  crowd  the  ranks  with  partly  trained 
men  who  keep  down  pay  and  lower  the  dignity  of 
the  calling.  It  is  sometimes  a  serious  question 
whether  it  is  wise  to  give  the  few  who  are  worthy 
a  chance,  when  in  the  giving  of  it  so  many  are 
injured. 

There  is  a  third  way  by  which  a  man  may 
obtain  a  fair  engineering  education,  and  that  is  by 
self -tutoring.  The  self -tutored  man  is  one  who 
endeavors  to  educate  himself  from  books,  without 
the  assistance  of  teachers  or  correspondence 
schools.  All  honor  to  the  man  who  succeeds  in  this 
stupendous  undertaking  which  many  start  upon 
and  few  accomplish.  It  was  the  way  in  which 
90  per  cent,  of  the  engineers  were  educated  more 
than  fifty  years  ago  and  a  large  percentage  of 
engineers  now  living,  who  are  past  middle  age, 


-ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  39 

were  self -tutored.  That  many  achieved  great  suc- 
cess was  due  rather  to  the  fact  that  the  country 
needed  them  and  they  were  instinctive  engineers, 
than  that  they  were  ' '  practically  educated. ' '  With 
the  advent  of  the  well-trained  college  graduate  the 
self -tutored  men  are  not  so  highly  thought  of  as 
was  once  the  case.  Prior  to  the  civil  war  there  was 
considerable  activity  in  railway  building,  and  the 
engineering  schools  of  the  country  were  so  few  that 
it  was  hard  to  hold  the  graduates  of  West  Point 
and  Annapolis  in  the  service  of  the  army  and  navy, 
their  education  being  so  good  along  the  lines  of 
applied  science.  General  McClellan,  a  graduate 
of  West  Point  was  chief  engineer  and  manager  of 
a  railway  when  the  war  broke  out.  After  the  war 
ended  the  whole  country,  especially  the  west, 
experienced  such  a  boom  and  there  was  so  much 
railway  building  that  the  schools  were  again  unable 
to  supply  enough  engineers,  so  boys  with  the  most 
elementary  training  were  placed  at  drafting 
boards  and  bright  young  fellows  were  given  a  few 
lessons  in  handling  surveying  instruments,  the 
result  being  that  the  country  in  dull  times  was 
crowded  with  "engineers,"  many  of  whom  were 
hardly  more  than  automatons,  doing  all  the  routine 
work  connected  with  railway  surveying  and  build- 
ing in  a  mechanical  manner.  One  panic  period 
lasting  three  or  four  years  sufficed  to  enable  the 
engineering  schools,  enormously  increased  in  num- 
bers from  the  half  dozen  existing  in  the  late  60  's, 


40  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

to  catch  up  and  more  than  supply  the  legitimate 
existing  demand,  a  condition  of  affairs  that  still 
exists. 

Much  of  the  work  done  in  engineering  offices  is 
of  a  nature  which  does  not  demand  the  full  train- 
ing required  by  an  engineer.  Much  of  this  work 
is  drafting  of  a  kind  that  merely  requires  a  fair 
knowledge  of  standard  methods  of  construction 
and  the  man  who  has  worked  around  an  office  long 
enough  "to  soak  it  in,"  manages  to  eke  out  a  fair 
living  and  is  employed  pretty  constantly  at  pay 
which  is  about  that  of  an  average  clerk.  There 
are  others  who  do  nothing  but  make  tracings,  and 
obviously  they  do  not  require  any  more  education 
than  is  given  in  grammar  schools.  Their  pay  is  not 
high.  Others  are  employed  as  blue  printers,  filing 
clerks,  statisticians,  timekeepers,  rodmen,  chain- 
men,  etc.  Nearly  all  enter  upon  the  work  with 
the  idea  of  "learning  it  practically,"  the  result 
being  an  imitation  of  the  old-time  British  engi- 
neer, a  technically  trained  mechanic.  It  is  only 
an  imitation,  for  in  the  case  of  the  British  boy 
a  high  premium  was  paid  for  the  privilege  of  get- 
ting him  into  an  office  and  some  pains  were  taken 
to  see  that  he  managed  to  get  the  rudiments  of  an 
engineering  education  for  the  credit  of  the  office, 
if  for  no  other  reason.  The  present-day  boys  and 
young  men  in  American  offices  are  not  taken  in  as 
pupils.  They  are  employed  to  do  certain  definite 
work  that  calls  for  no  particular  education  and  is 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  41 

never  more  highly  paid  than  is  the  work  of  a  com- 
mon laborer,  frequently  not  so  highly  paid  as  the 
work  of  a  union  laborer. 

It  is  this  class  of  assistants  that  supports  the 
correspondence  schools,  the  evening  classes,  the 
private  " practical"  schools.  A  pitifully  small 
number  do  amount  to  something  after  a  while  and 
from  the  very  nature  of  engineering  work  a  large 
percentage  of  engineers  to  the  end  of  time  will  be 
men  who  have  not  received  an  education  in  resident 
technical  schools.  Some  men  prove  by  statistics 
based  on  records  of  men  applying  for  membership 
in  the  national  engineering  societies,  that  very  few 
men  engaged  in  engineering  work  to-day  are  self- 
tutored.  Their  deductions  are  false,  for,  in  the 
first  place,  the  successful  self -tutored  men  have 
to  be  urged  to  apply  for  membership  in  such 
societies,  having  a  feeling  that  a  prejudice  exists 
against  engineers  who  are  non-graduates.  In  the 
second  place  a  man  has  only  to  canvass  the  offices 
of  engineers  and  make  inquiries  to  discover  that 
a  large  percentage  of  the  engineers  and  their 
assistants  to  be  found  to-day  are  non-graduates. 
Many  are  high  school  graduates  and  many  have 
had  only  one  or  two  years  in  resident  schools, 
while  a  great  many  have  simply  grown  up  in  the 
business,  starting  in  as  office  boys.  The  writer 
made  a  canvass  of  one  hundred  engineering  offices 
and  sixty  architects'  offices  and  the  drafting  offices 


42  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

of  forty  manufacturing  establishments  to  deter- 
mine these  facts.  The  percentages  were  as  follows : 

Graduates.       Non-graduates. 
%  % 

Engineers'  offices 80  20 

Architects'  offices 22  78 

Manufacturing  plants 18  82 

In  engineers'  offices  the  permanent  positions 
are  few  and  when  an  engineer  has  to  increase  his 
force  he  must  have  men  already  trained.  This 
accounts  for  the  high  percentage  of  graduates  in 
the  offices  of  engineers  in  private  practice.  With 
architects  the  conditions  of  employment  for  drafts- 
men are  better  than  with  engineers  in  private 
practice.  In  manufacturing  establishments  there 
are  many  permanent  positions  for  low-grade  drafts- 
men. If  this  canvass  had  been  made  in  the  works 
and  offices  of  the  great  electrical  companies  the 
percentages  would  probably  have  been  ninety-five 
graduates  to  five  non-graduates,  but  conditions  of 
pay  not  improved.  In  manufacturing  lines  much 
of  the  work  has  been  standardized  and  the  drafting 
consists  in  tracing  and  making  slight  alterations 
in  existing  drawings  to  adapt  them  to  other  uses. 
There  is  very  little  high-class  designing,  empirical 
methods  developed  by  many  years  of  practice  in  a 
particular  specialty  being  used.  In  electricity 
there  is  greater  need  of  well-trained  men  than  in 
mechanical  work,  for  electrical  practice  has  not 
vet  been  fully  standardized. 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  43 

The  majority  of  men,  however,  who  are  trying 
to  secure  an  engineering  education  by  night  study 
will  never  succeed,  for  their  trouble  is  tempera- 
mental. They  went  into  practical  work  instead  of 
going  to  a  technical  school,  because  they  imagined 
four  years  was  too  long  a  time  to  spend  in  study 
and  thought  there  was  some  royal  road  to  learn- 
ing. Some,  in  fact  many,  believed  there  was  no 
necessity  for  all  the  studies  the  technical  student 
must  take.  The  desire  to  begin  earning  money  led 
them  to  neglect  the  preliminary  school  training. 
Later  in  life  they  take  up  night  study,  but  the 
impatient  spirit  still  stirs  within  them  and  pre- 
vents rapid  or  great  progress.  Such  men  are  gen- 
erally pretentious  to  a  degree  and  are  a  positive 
detriment  to  the  profession. 

A  man  succeeds  in  the  present  day  because  of  one 
or  all  of  three  things,  as  compared  with  his  com- 
petitors. They  are : 

Superior  intelligence, 
Greater  energy, 
Superior  preparation. 

The  superior  intelligence  must  be  proven  and 
it  takes  many  years  generally  for  a  young  chap  to 
prove  he  has  ordinary  intelligence.  The  possession 
of  greater  energy  must  be  proven  and  this  takes 
years  of  hustle  in  competition  with  seasoned 
veterans  in  the  battle  for  existence.  Adequate 
preparation  along  lines  which  a  century  of  experi- 


44  ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION 

ence  in  training  engineers  has  shown  to  be  good,  is 
the  finest  backing  that  intelligence  and  energy  can 
have.  It  is  a  mistake  to  permit  a  young  fellow  to 
go  into  a  profession  like  engineering  without  the 
best  technical  training  it  is  possible  to  secure. 
Sometimes  the  man  who  has  a  good  training  can 
make  a  small  amount  of  energy  and  a  mediocre 
brain  carry  him  through  life  splendidly. 

What  sort  of  an  education  does  an  engineer 
require  ? 

In  the  first  place  he  should  be  an  excellent 
draftsman.  Drafting  is  a  universal  language  by 
means  of  which  the  designer  conveys  instructions 
to  the  workman.  The  graduate  is  employed  for 
the  first  few  years  after  graduation  in  minor  posi- 
tions in  which  drafting  is  his  principal  occupation. 
If  he  is  not  a  good  draftsman  he  seldom  has  an 
opportunity  to  get  a  foothold  in  his  chosen  work. 

The  engineer  is  lost  without  a  sound  knowledge 
of  mathematics.  The  amount  used  in  routine  work 
is  not  great  and  there  is  a  class  of  "rule  of  thumb" 
and  "pocket-book"  engineers,  which  decries  the 
great  stress  laid  upon  a  sound  knowledge  of  mathe- 
matics by  the  men  who  head  the  engineering 
schools.  It  is  a  puzzling  thing  that  the  actual 
amount  of  mathematics  required  in  daily  work  is 
so  small,  yet  the  men  who  have  received  the  broad- 
est training  in  mathematics  are  the  most  reliable, 
and,  in  late  life,  are  the  most  successful  engineers. 

The  first  few  years  out  of  school  are  spent  in 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  45 

detail  work  and  it  is  the  young  fellow,  generally, 
who  is  intrusted  with  most  of  the  research  work 
requiring  a  knowledge  of  mathematics;  work  of 
a  nature  to  seriously  tax  the  patience  of  an  older 
man.  With  the  passing  of  years  the  work  of  the 
engineer  becomes  more  executive  and  his  knowl- 
edge of  mathematics  less  sure.  The  fact  that  few 
eminent  engineers  can  pass  a  satisfactory  examina- 
tion in  elementary  mathematics  and  would  flunk 
badly  in  the  higher  branches  is  no  argument 
against  the  value  of  a  thorough  training  in  mathe- 
matics. It  may  be  that  the  reason  the  men  achieve 
marked  success  who  acquire  an  understanding 
knowledge  of  mathematics  is  that  they  are 
instinctive  engineers  and  so  took  the  mathematical 
instruction  intelligently  as  a  necessary  part  of  the 
preparation  for  their  life  work. 

Mathematics  enable  a  man  to  investigate 
scientifically  many  things  which  might  otherwise 
wait  years  for  experimental  proof.  The  rapid 
growth  in  the  use  of  reinforced  concrete  as  a 
structural  material  is  an  evidence  of  this.  The 
invention  of  reinforced  concrete  was  not  due 
to  an  engineer.  A  gardener  used  wire  netting- 
embedded  in  concrete  in  the  construction  of  some 
large  jars  and  an  engineer  saw  the  possibilities  in 
such  material.  He  possessed  a  sound  knowledge  of 
mathematics  and  mechanics  and  developed  some 
theoretical  formulas  to  explain  the  action  of  the 
internal  stresses  and  to  arrive  at  the  correct 


46  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

amount  of  steel  required  to  reinforce  concrete. 
Other  engineers  and  mathematicians  also  worked 
at  the  problem  and  a  number  of  hypotheses  were 
worked  out,  differing  slightly  in  detail,  but  prac- 
tically all  giving  nearly  like  results.  In  Europe 
the  material  Had  a  wider  use  than  in  the  United 
States,  which  is  naturally  a  backward  country 
in  taking  up  new  ideas,  and  in  which  besides, 
certain  patents  gave  a  monopoly  to  a  few  con- 
cerns. When  the  patents  expired  the  material 
came  into  common  use  and  so  many  uneducated 
and  half -educated  men  went  into  the  business  with 
empirical  and  rule  of  thumb  methods  of  design 
that  many  accidents  happened.  A  number  of 
experiments  were  made  from  which  simple  for- 
mulas were  derived,  and  it  was  discovered  that 
the  formulas  and  methods  of  the  mathematicians  of 
Europe  were  to  all  intents  and  purposes  safe  and 
their  reasoning  in  the  main  correct.  The  presence 
of  thousands  of  half-educated,  self-styled  engi- 
neers in  this  country  was  responsible  for  many 
disasters,  the  public  having  great  confidence  in 
the  " practical"  man  and  being  fearful  of  the 
"theoretical"  man.  The  writer  has  observed  this 
strange  sentiment  for  many  years  and  has  dis- 
covered that  to  be  a  practical  man  it  is  merely 
necessary  for  a  man  to  style  himself  "practical" 
and  rail  at  men  who  have  spent  good  money  to 
acquire  an  education.  The  public  makes  no  inves- 
tigation into  the  qualifications  of  the  self-styled 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

"practical"  man,  taking  his  word  that  he  is  prac- 
tical and  that  the  trained  man  is  a  fool,  and 
" theoretical."  Because  the  word  theoretical  is 
used  in  an  awesome  manner  it  is  thought  to  mean 
something  dreadful.  Barnum  once  made  a  state- 
ment that  the  people  like  to  be  humbugged. 

Theory  is  a  plain  statement  of  a  law  that  has 
been  proven.  Hypothesis  is  an  idea  advanced  as 
a  theory.  The  man  who  takes  a  thorough  engineer- 
ing course  studies  the  theories  underlying  his  work 
and  thereby  obtains  a  practical  understanding  of 
it.  In  engineering  schools  a  large  part  of  the 
instruction  consists  in  a  study  of  the  work  done 
by  engineers  and  contractors  in  many  parts  of  the 
world  and  during  all  the  centuries.  When  a  young 
fellow  who  has  conscientiously  pursued  his  engi- 
neering studies  graduates,  it  does  not  take  him  long 
to  acquire  a  first-hand  practical  knowledge  of  his 
work  and  to  this  he  adds  a  knowledge  of  what 
other  men  have  done.  It  is  plain  to  see,  therefore, 
that  the  theoretically  trained  man  is  the  practical 
man. 

The  man  who  has  no  school  training  in  the 
underlying  theory  of  his  work  and  merely  learns 
by  seeing,  without  doing  much,  if  any,  reading,  or 
without  doing  any  reading  under  proper  guidance, 
has  only  his  own  experience  to  guide  him.  He  is 
practical  to  the  extent  that  he  has  "  picked  up 
knowledge"  by  doing.  Not  being  a  student  he 
knows  little  of  what  other  men  have  done,  except 


48  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

men  situated  like  himself  whom  he  occasionally 
meets.  Sometimes  an  idea  strikes  him  and  he  pro- 
duces an  hypothesis,  dignifies  it  by  the  term  of 
" theory"  and  starts  on  a  wild  goose  chase,  fre- 
quently finding  men  of  means  to  advance  money  to 
push  his  wild  ideas.  The  man  who  follows  true 
theory  is  the  practical  man,  for  he  follows  what 
others  before  him  proved  to  be  true.  The  man 
who  works  by  hypothesis  will  distort  facts  to 
attempt  to  prove  himself  right  and  is  really  the 
theoretical  man  in  the  sense  that  the  average 
individual  understands  the  meaning  of  theory.  The 
" theoretical"  man  is  not  the  educated  man  and 
the  " practical"  man  is  not  the  uneducated  man. 

Anything  which  will  enable  a  man  to  think 
soundly  and  act  with  intelligence  has  a  place  in  the 
curriculum  of  an  engineering  school.  Mathematics 
is,  therefore,  entitled  to  first  place  when  it  is 
taught  as  a  tool  and  not  as  an  end. 

In  school  a  grade  of  70  will  carry  a  boy  through 
and  90  gives  him  extremely  creditable  standing.  In 
business  a  grade  of  100,  or  perfect,  is  necessary  to 
hold  a  position.  Intelligence,  plus  a  grade  of  100, 
is  absolutely  necessary  for  advancement.  The  well- 
known  " Gentleman's  grade  of  C,"  of  the  old-time 
classical  course  is  an  inferior  grade  in  the  engi- 
neering course.  A  careful  study  of  the  biographies 
of  successful  engineers,  appearing  frequently  in 
technical  papers,  will  show  that  a  surprisingly 
large  number  won  prizes  and  had  excellent  stand- 


r 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  49 

ing  in  many,  if  not  all,  of  their  studies  while  in 
school.  Their  careful,  conscientious  work  at  school 
enabled  them  to  secure  satisfactory  positions  upon 
graduation.  When  men  were  laid  off  in  dull  sea- 
sons these  well-trained  workers  were  retained.^ 
They  were  not  all " greasy  grinds,"  in  spite  of  their~7 
high  standing,  for  many  won  enviable  records  on 
the  athletic  field.  The  engineering  student  must 
not  forget  that  his  training  is  for  service  and  if 
he  does  not  acquire  industrious  habits  in  school 
he  will  hardly  change  in  character  and  acquire 
them  later  in  life.  The  standards  of  schools  exist- 

ure  must  not  be  permitted  to 
dominate  the  schools  intended  for  utilitarian 
training. 

Many  young  chaps  fail  in  offices  not  only  be- 
cause they  are  poor  draftsmen,  but  because  their 
training  in  mechanics  has  not  been  thorough.  The 
training  in  mathematics  is  for  the  purpose  of 
enabling  mechanics  to  be  properly  studied  and  the 
two  are  essential.  A  common  complaint  against 
engineering  graduates  is  that  they  are  often  able 
to  chase  "the  elusive  x  through  the  mazes  of  a 
cubic  equation"  and  yet  cannot  perform  an  ordi- 
nary problem  in  arithmetic.  The  time  in  school 
has  been  spent  on  the  study  of  principles  and  laws 
with  insufficient  time  for  an  application  of  the 
principles.  The  writer  does  not  wonder  at  this 
very  much,  however,  as  he  is  well  acquainted  with 
a  number  of  instructors  in  mathematics.  Their 


50  ENGINEERING   AS   A   VOCATION 

interest  does  not  lie  in  teaching,  but  in  the  study 
of  this,  their  favorite  science.  Each  student  is 
put  through  a  course  of  instruction  without  any 
idea  on  the  part  of  the  instructor  that  he  is  to 
regard  it  as  a  tool,  but  merely  because  it  is  a  part 
of  the  prescribed  course  of  instruction.  There  are 
a  few  professors  and  instructors  who  rail  bitterly 
at  life  because  they  must  teach  to  earn  a  living. 
They  think  college  is  a  fine  place  were  it  not  for 
the  students  and  their  idea  of  happiness  is  to  sit 
and  study  all  day  and  night.  The  head  of  the  insti- 
tution may  require  certain  text  books  to  be  used, 
but  an  examination  of  the  books  will  reveal  the 
word  "omit"  written  on  every  page  where  prac- 
tical examples  are  given,  and  at  the  beginning  of 
every  chapter  filled  with  applications  of  the  theory 
taught.  It  is  not  an  uncommon  thing  to  find  a  300- 
page  text  book  used  and  only  a  part  of  it  given  to 
the  students  when  there  are  plenty  of  abridged 
works  on  the  market  which  the  teacher  could  use, 
supplementing  the  book  with  personal  instruction 
were  he  not  too  lazy.  Instead  of  using  large  books 
and  giving  a  "skim"  course,  it  would  be  better  to 
give  a  short  course  from  a  small  book  and  give  it 
thoroughly.  The  writer  believes  that  tutorial 
methods  should  be  used  to  some  extent  in  engineer- 
ing schools,  so  that  the  instructors  in  mathematics, 
graphics  and  mechanics  could  be  changed  every 
semester  and  thus  the  teachers  of  mathematics 
would  learn  to  know  what  their  students  require. 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  51 

If  an  instructor  in  mathematics  were  required  to 
teach  his  poorly  instructed  class  the  following 
semester  in  mechanics  he  would  improve  as  a 
teacher  of  mathematics.  This  lack  of  coordination 
is  marked  in  small  colleges  where  there  is  an  engi- 
neering course  newly  established  and  the  professor 
of  engineering  must  rely  upon  the  other  older 
established  departments  to  train  his  students  in 
the  fundamentals.  It  is  also  a  fault  in  some  large 
schools. 

Physics,  of  which  mechanics  is  a  branch,  is  a 
most  important  subject  and  chemistry  is  becoming 
daily  of  more  importance  as  a  part  of  the  knowl- 
edge an  engineer  must  possess.  The  engineer  deals 
with  materials  and  a  proper  study  cannot  be  made 
of  materials  without  thorough  grounding  in 
physics  and  chemistry. 

Every  engineer  must  know  how  to  lay  out  work 
and  make  surveys  through  strange  countries.  This 
requires  a  knowledge  of  surveying  and  exploratory 
surveying  presupposes  a  knowledge  of  astronomy, 
which  is,  therefore,  a  part  of  the  curriculum  of  all 
engineering  schools.  Sometimes  it  is  taught  as 
astronomy  and  sometimes  it  is  a  part  of  the  course 
in  surveying,  enough  of  astronomy  being  given  to 
determine  latitude,  longitude  and  time. 

A  knowledge  of  geology  is  necessary  to  enable 
the  engineer  to  extract  metals  and  ores  from  the 
earth,  form  his  excavations  and  embankments 


52  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

properly,  construct  dams  and  reservoirs  and  put  in 
stable  foundations. 

All  engineering  studies  such  as  the  design  of 
structures,  the  flow  of  water,  sanitation,  etc.,  are 
based  upon  mathematics,  physics  and  chemistry, 
and  the  mathematical,  physical  and  chemical 
sciences.  Thoroughly  grounded  in  these  the  student 
can  study  by  himself,  if  need  be,  the  higher  sub- 
jects comprised  in  practical  work. 

The  men  who  have  the  most  to  do  with  the 
framing  of  courses  of  study  for  engineering  schools 
are  safe  guides  for  the  young  men  who  seek  infor- 
mation as  to  electives.  The  individual  professors 
are  wretched  advisers,  for  each  professor  is  a 
slave  to  his  own  course  and  magnifies  its  impor- 
tance. For  instance,  nothing  more  useless  to  an 
intending  engineer  can  be  imagined  as  an  elective 
than  the  offered  graduate  courses  in  higher  mathe- 
matics ;  the  prescribed  courses  are  amply  sufficient. 
If  the  head  of  the  mathematical  department,  how- 
ever, is  consulted  he  will  generally  advise  mathe- 
matics. The  professor  of  chemistry  will  sing  the 
praises  of  advanced  chemistry  when  the  principal 
reason  for  the  study  of  chemistry  by  an  engineer 
is  the  acquisition  of  information.  The  professor 
of  mechanics  will  advise  technical  mechanics  and 
then  more  technical  mechanics.  These  men  all 
mean  well,  but  they  have  deliberately  chosen  to 
withdraw  themselves  from  the  outside  world  and 
immure  themselves  in  walls  to  deal  forever  with 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  53 

immature  minds  and  teach  narrow  special  subjects. 
They  are  not  qualified  to  advise  the  young  man 
who  is  going  out  into  the  world  to  guard  a  home 
against  the  attack  of  the  wolf.  Neither  can  the 
professor  of  bridge  design,  of  structural  design, 
of  sanitary  engineering,  of  hydraulic  engineering 
be  counted  a  safe  adviser,  for  each  will  unduly 
magnify  his  specialty.  The  entire  course  is 
arranged  to  give  each  of  the  subjects  a  proper 
representation  and  if  there  is  any  time  left  for 
electives  the  young  man  should  take  them  in 
the  humanities,  literature,  political  economy, 
sociology,  etc. 

The  engineer  changes  the  very  face  of  nature. 
He  makes  millions  of  blades  of  grass  grow  where 
none  grew  before.  He  builds  railroads  which  peo- 
ple the  deserts.  He  erects  factories  and  equips 
them.  Thousands  of  people  are  employed  through 
him  and  his  employment.  History,  sociology, 
economics  and  philanthropy  are  studies  with  which 
he  should  be  familiar.  He  deals  with  materials 
and  for  four  years  his  studies  are  arranged  to  give 
him  a  proper  knowledge  of  materials.  His  largest 
dealings  are  with  men  and  until  a  very  late  period 
nothing  was  taught  him  about  mankind. 

The  study  of  English  is  most  important.  Engi- 
neers must  make  reports  on  the  feasibility  of  pro- 
jects involving  the  expenditure  of  vast  sums.  The 
men  who  have  the  money  to  invest  are  usually  of 
a  class  that  cannot  tolerate  poor  English  and  who 


54  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

also  like  to  have  men  in  their  employ  who  can  act, 
speak  and  write  like  gentlemen.  The  ability  to 
write  a  readable  report  is  a  valuable  asset.  It  is 
becoming  necessary  nowadays  for  engineers  to 
study  the  laws  of  business  and  the  law  of  contract 
so  that  litigation  may  be  avoided.  The  average 
lawyer  is  sadly  lacking  in  the  ability  to  write 
intelligible  English  and  in  earlier  days  when  every 
engineer  assumed  it  to  be  part  of  the  work  of  a 
lawyer  to  prepare  all  legal  papers,  there  was  much 
litigation  over  contracts.  To-day  few  contracts 
and  specifications  are  seen  by  lawyers  and  the 
ability  to  properly  express  his  meaning,  together 
with  the  marked  lessening  of  litigation  over  con- 
struction work,  has  strengthened  the  engineer  with 
his  employers.  The  work  of  the  engineer  often 
takes  him  to  foreign  lands.  There  are  also  numer- 
ous international  conventions.  In  every  country 
there  are  many  technical  societies  holding  frequent 
meetings  to  describe  and  discuss  work  in  progress 
and  publishing  bulletins  containing  reports  of 
these  meetings  and  discussions.  Science  has  no 
national  boundaries  and  all  men  of  science,  pure 
and  applied,  are  brothers.  The  modern  engineer, 
therefore,  should  possess  a  reading  knowledge,  at 
least,  of  French  and  German,  while  a  knowledge 
of  Italian  and  Spanish  will  wonderfully  increase 
his  power  for  research. 

The  training  of  engineers  is  so  broad  at  the  best 
schools    and    the    overlapping    of    the    various 


ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION  55 

branches  is  so  marked,  that  it  is  not  uncommon  to 
see  graduated  civil  engineers  employed  on  work 
considered  the  proper  employment  for  mechanical 
or  electrical  engineers,  while  the  latter  are  often 
put  on  work  of  a  strictly  civil  engineering  char- 
acter. The  mining  engineer  receives  such  a  diver- 
sified training  that  he  is  to  be  found  everywhere 
doing  all  kinds  of  work. 

In  every  school  where  various  branches  of  engi- 
neering are  taught  it  is  usual  to  have  the  courses 
identical  for  the  freshman  and  the  first  half  of  the 
sophomore  year.  In  the  second  half  of  the  sopho- 
more year  there  is  a  slight  difference  and  a  final 
separation  in  the  junior  year.  However,  a  num- 
ber of  studies  are  the  same  even  in  the  third  and 
fourth  years,  but  the  hours  are  different,  some 
branches  taking  a  three-hour  course  while  others 
take  only  one  or  two  hours. 

Each  school  varies  the  standard  curriculum 
slightly  according  to  local  influences.  The  majority 
of  graduates  find  employment  near  the  school  and 
the  curriculum  naturally  reflects  to  some  extent  the 
industry  of  most  importance  in  that  section  of  the 
country.  Some  of  the  older  schools  have  a  large 
number  of  the  alumnae  employed  in  a  certain  line 
of  work,  and  as  the  alumnae  are  always  loyal  to 
their  alma  mater  and  give  her  graduates  the  pref- 
erence when  assistants  are  required,  it  is  natural 
that  the  school  will  lay  stress  on  the  line  of  work  in 
which  the  greatest  number  of  graduates  find 


56  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

employment.  Here  is  a  slight  hint  as  to  the 
selection  of  a  school.  A  very  old  school  with  an 
honorable  name  is  a  splendid  place-finder  for  grad- 
uates likely  to  do  it  credit.  The  newer  schools  find 
it  somewhat  more  difficult  to  place  graduates.  A 
disadvantage  often  found  in  old  schools  is  intense 
conservatism  and  an  overabundant  supply  of 
" inbred"  instructors.  Frequently  a  new  school  is 
good  because  all  the  teaching  staff  has  been  selected 
for  proved  ability  and  a  desire  to  start  a  new 
school  thoroughly  abreast  of  the  times, 
unhampered  by  traditions.  This  is  excellent  if  the 
departments  of  mathematics,  physics  and  chem- 
istry in  the  older  part  of  the  institution  will 
arrange  courses  of  value  to  engineers  and  not  con- 
sider the  " culture"  requirements  of  budding 
theologues,  lawyers  and  physicians  as  sufficient  for 
technical  men. 

The  man  who  tries  to  start  a  school  to  satisfy 
critics  in  the  ranks  of  practical  engineers  is  fore- 
doomed to  failure.  The  wisest  men  recognize  that 
no  school  can  turn  out  engineers,  but  that  all 
schools  should  turn  out  young  fellows  trained  to 
be  good  engineering  assistants  and  having  enough 
education  to  be  ready  for  advancement  when  it 
comes.  The  chief  criticism  against  the  schools  is 
that  the  boys  are  not  well  enough  drilled  in  prac- 
tice, lack  of  time  preventing  more  than  the  instill- 
ing of  principles.  It  is  a  serious  criticism,  but 
unjust,  for  all  men  are  not  endowed  with  the  brains 


ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION  57 

to  be  good  engineers.  All  the  young  chaps  who 
study  engineering  are  not  entitled  to  be  termed 
"ingenious,"  for  many  are  one  degree  removed 
from  extreme  simplicity.  Because  of  the  very 
large  number  of  engineering  school  graduates 
there  is  quite  a  respectable  sprinkling  of  those  who 
lack  ordinary  intelligence  in  practical  affairs; 
enough  of  them  to  bring  undeserved  reproach  upon 
the  schools. 

The  best  reply  possible  to  some  severe  critics 
is  to  remind  them  that  they  are  themselves  grad- 
uates of  the  schools  they  criticise.  Many  of  them 
who  met  with  trials  after  graduation  may  have 
been  mistaken  in  taking  up  engineering  and  stuck 
to  the  work  simply  because  they  did  not  like  to  feel 
their  time  had  been  wasted,  and,  as  the  years  rolled 
by,  they  gradually  developed  into  engineers.  The 
training,  after  all,  was  their  salvation.  This,  of 
course,  is  merely  a  personal  opinion  formed  after 
studying  some  men  who  would  like  to  try  their  hands 
at  revising  engineering  curricula.  They  are  the  sort 
of  men  who  come  always  unprepared  to  class  and 
want  the  notes  of  the  lesson  in  advance  to  study 
instead  of  the  longer  text.  Men  who  only  learn  to 
study  after  many  bitter  experiences,  their  early 
experiences  having  led  them  to  rely  always  upon 
a  teacher.  Faults  in  schools  do  exist  and  the 
writer  will  touch  upon  a  few  on  other  pages, 
but  these  faults  are  being  remedied  each  year 
as  teachers  come  together  and  as  more  of  the 


58  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

high-class  professors  combine  teaching  and  the 
practice  of  engineering.  The  courses  of  study  have 
been  so  well  tried  out  in  the  years  gone  by,  and  the 
number  of  men  successfully  educated  at  the  schools 
is  such  a  large  per  cent,  of  the  whole  that  inferior 
instructors  and  assistant  professors  cannot  do 
much  harm  when  there  is  a  real  man  at  the  head  of 
the  department.  It  is  only  when  the  head  of  the 
department  is  weak  that  the  school  suffers— this 
being  true  of  any  business. 

Typical  courses  of  engineering  may  be  repre- 
sented by  the  following,  taken  from  the  annual 
catalogue  of  the  University  of  Illinois,  Urbana,  111. 
The  figures  following  the  subject  indicate  the  num- 
ber of  recitation  hours  per  week,  each  hour  of 
recitation  being  assumed  to  require  two  hours  of 
preparation.  The  university  receives  aid  from  the 
United  States  Government  so  a  certain  amount  of 
military  instruction  is  given.  All  engineering 
schools  do  not  have  military  instruction. 

FRESHMAN  YEAR 
Common  to  all  courses. 

First  Semester 

General  Engineering  Drawing 4 

Trigonometry 2 

Advanced  Algebra 3 

French,  German,  Spanish  or  English 4 

Shop  Practice 3 

Military  Drill 1 

Gymnasium   1 

Total  semester  hours. .  .  18 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  59 

Second  Semester 

Descriptive  Geometry 4 

Analytical  Geometry 5 

French,  German,  English,  Rhetoric  or  Spanish . .  4 

Shop  Practice 3 

Military  Drill 1 

Military  Regulations 1 

Gymnasium   1 

Total  semester  hours 19 

SOPHOMORE  CIVIL  ENGINEERING 
First  Semester 

Differential  Calculus 5 

Physics,  Lectures 3 

Physics,  Laboratory 2 

Rhetoric   3 

Surveying 5 

Military  Drill 1 

t  Total  semester  hours 19 

Second  Semester 

Integral  Calculus 3 

Physics,  Lectures 2 

Physics,  Laboratory 2 

Rhetoric 3 

Analytical  Mechanics 3 

Topographical  Surveying 4 

Railroad  Curves 1 

Military  Drill 1 

Total  semester  hours. .                                    ,  19 


60  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

JUNIOR  CIVIL  ENGINEERING 
First  Semester 

Engineering  Materials 1 

Analytical  Mechanics 2.5 

Eesistance  of  Materials 3.5 

Railroad  Surveying 5 

Chemistry 4 

Total  semester  hours 16 

Second  Semester 

Hydraulics 3 

Eoad  Engineering 2 

Graphic  Statics 2 

Astronomy  or  Geology 5 

Steam  Engines  and  Boilers 3 

Principles  of  Economics 2 

Total  semester  hours 17 

SENIOR  CIVIL  ENGINEERING 
First  Semester 

Masonry  Construction 5 

Bridge  Analysis 2 

Bridge  Details 3 

Tunnelling 1 

Metal  Structures 1 

Water  Supply  Engineering 4 

Thesis 1 

Total  semester  hours. .  .  17 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  61 

Second  Semester 

Masonry  and  Reinforced  Concrete  Design 2 

Bridge  Design 5 

Advanced  Bridge  Analysis 2 

Engineering  Contracts  and  Specifications 2 

Seminary 1 

Sewerage 3 

Thesis   2 

Total  semester  hours 17 

Every  senior  student  must  prepare  a  thesis  to 
defend  Ms  right  to  receive  a  degree  in  engineering. 
Modern  thesis  work  generally  is  of  a  research 
nature.  The  time  given  above  to  thesis  work  rep- 
resents the  time  given  by  the  instructional  staff  in 
assisting  the  students  in  this  work.  The  seminary 
item  refers  to  the  time  devoted  by  the  dean  of  the 
school  in  leading  topical  discussions  on  articles 
appearing  in  technical  papers,  thus  making  the 
boys  ready  against  the  time  when  they  will  leave 
school  and  must  thereafter  depend  upon  them- 
selves in  hunting  up  authorities,  etc.  If  a  tech- 
nical school  does  nothing  more  than  guide  a 
student  in  the  selection  of  and  inspire  a  dis- 
criminating taste  for  good  technical  literature  it 
accomplishes  much,  as  was  recently  said  by  the 
editor  of  Engineering  News. 


62  ENGINEERING  AS   A  VOCATION 

SOPHOMORE  MECHANICAL  ENGINEERING 
First  Semester 

Similar  to  Civil  Engineering,  with  the  omission  of  sur- 
veying, substituting : 

Machine  Shop 3  hours 

Machine  Design 2  hours 

Second  Semester 

Similar    to    Civil    Engineering,    with    the    omission    of 
topographical  surveying  and  railroad  curves,  substituting : 

Machine  Shop 2  hours 

Steam  Engineering 3  hours 

JUNIOR  MECHANICAL  ENGINEERING. 
First  Semester 

Engineering  Materials 1 

Analytical  Mechanics 2.5 

Eesistance  of  Materials 3.5 

Power  Measurements 2 

Mechanism 3 

Integral  Calculus 2 

Chemistry 4 

Total  semester  hours. .  ,  18 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

Second  Semester 

Thermodynamics 3 

Machine  Design 3 

Seminary 1 

Analytical  Mechanics 3 

Dynamo  Machinery 4 

Engineering  Chemistry 3 

Total  semester  hours 17 

SENIOR  MECHANICAL  ENGINEERING 
First  Semester 

Heat  Engines 2 

Mechanics  of  Machinery 3 

Machine  Design 3 

Mechanical  Laboratory 3 

Seminary   1 

Alternating  Currents 2 

Principles  of  Economics 2 

Total  semester  hours 16 

Second  Semester 

Design  of  Power  Plants 3 

Seminary 1 

Thesis 3 

Kailway  Engineering  or  Surveying 2 

Economic  Problems 2 

Elective 2 

Total  semester  hours 16 

SOPHOMORE  ELECTRICAL  ENGINEERING 
Same  as  Mechanical  Engineering. 


64  ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION 

JUNIOR  ELECTRICAL  ENGINEERING. 

First  Semester 

j 

Engineering   Materials 1 

Analytical  Mechanics 2.5 

Eesistance  of  Materials 3.5 

Dynamo-electric  Machinery 3 

Electrical  Engineering  Laboratory 2 

Electrical  and  Magnetic  Measurements 2 

Chemistry 4 

Total  semester  hours 18 

Second  Semester 

Hydraulics 3 

Alternating  Currents 4 

Electrical  Engineering  Laboratory 2 

Electrical  and  Magnetic  Measurements 2 

Steam  Engineering 3 

Total  semester  hours 16 

SENIOR  ELECTRICAL  ENGINEERING 
First  Semester 

Seminary 1 

Advanced  Alternating  Currents 3 

Electrical  Distribution 3 

Electrical  Engineering  Laboratory 2 

Electrical  Design 2 

Thermodynamics 3 

Principles  of  Economics 2 

Total  semester  hours 16 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  65 

Second  Semester 

Power  Plants 3 

Seminary 1 

Electrical  Engineering  Laboratory 2 

Power  Plant  Design 1 

Thesis   3 

Mechanical  Engineering  Laboratory 3 

Economic  Problems 2 

Electives 2 

Total  semester  hours 17 

A  course  in  mining  engineering  has  been 
established  at  the  University  of  Illinois  within 
the  past  two  years  and  reflects  the  principal  mining 
industry,  coal,  of  the  state.  The  following  fairly 
typical  mining  course  is  that  of  the  Montana  State 
School  of  Mines,  Butte,  Mont. : 

FRESHMAN  YEAR 
First  Semester 

First  Term  Second  Term 

Hours  per  week  Hours  per  week 

Higher  Algebra 3  3 

Trigonometry 5  5 

Chemistry,    Lectures 3  3 

Chemistry,  Laboratory 9  9 

English 2  2 

Descriptive  Geometry 2  2 

Mechanical  Drawing 6  6 

Total  .  .  30  30 


66  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

Second  Semester 

First  Term         Second  Term 
Hours  per  week   Hours  per  week 

Analytical  Geometry 5  5 

Plane  Surveying,  Theory 3  3 

Descriptive  Geometry 2  2 

Chemistry,   Lectures 3  3 

English 2  2 

Chemistry,  Laboratory .6  6 

Mechanical  Drawing 9  9 

Total 30  30 

SOPHOMORE  YEAR 
First  Semester 

Calculus  5  5 

Physics  6  6 

Chemistry,  Lectures 2  2 

Mineralogy,  Lectures 2  2 

Mineralogy,  Laboratory 0  6 

Surveying,  Field  Work 15  0 

Topographical  Drawing 0  9 

Total 30  30 

Second  Semester 

Calculus,  Analytical  Mechanics ...     5  5 

Physics  4  4 

Chemistry,  Lectures 1  1 

Chemistry,  Laboratory 9  9 

Mine  Surveying,  Theory 2  2 

Mineralogy,  Lectures 0  3 

Geology,  Lectures 0  3 

Mineralogy,  Laboratory 6  16 

Total  .                                     .  30  40 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  67 

JUNIOR  YEAR 
First  Semester 

First  Term         Second  Term 
Hours  per  week    Hours  per  week 

Mechanics 5  5 

Mining    2  2 

Geology 5  5 

Metallurgy,  Lectures 3  3 

Mine  Surveying,  Practice 15  0 

Chemistry 0  6 

Graphics 0  9 

Total 30  30 

Second  Semester 

Mechanics  and  Hydraulics 5  5 

Mining 2  2 

Geology,  Lectures 5  5 

Metallurgy,  Lectures 3  3 

Engineering  Design 6  6 

Geology,  Field  Work 3  3 

Metallurgy,  Laboratory 3  3 

Chemistry,  Laboratory 3  3 

Total 30  30 

SENIOR  YEAR 
First  Semester 

Geology 5  5 

Mining 2  2 

Ore  Dressing,  Lectures 0  3 

Metallurgy 3  2 

Power  Transmission 3  3 

Assaying 15  0 

Geology,  Field  Work 0  3 

Ore  Dressing,  Laboratory 0  3 

Engineering  Design 0  6 

Total  .                                   .  28  27 


68  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

Second  Semester 

f  First  Term        Second  Term 
Hours  per  week   Hours  per  week 

Mining 3  3 

Ore  Dressing,  Lectures 2  2 

Ore  Dressing,  Laboratory 3  3 

Metallurgy,  Lectures 3  3 

Metallurgy,  Laboratory 3  3 

Mechanical  Engineering 5  5 

Engineering  Design 6  6 

Petrography 5  5 

Total 30  30 

The  attention  of  the  reader  is  directed  to  the 
number  of  hours  per  week  at  the  school  of  mining 
engineering  as  compared  with  the  hours  per  week 
at  the  University  of  Illinois.  Thirty  hours  is  a 
pretty  heavy  course  to  carry,  yet  it  is  done  in 
many  schools  and  the  students  seem  to  be  none  the 
worse  for  it.  Their  work  is  no  more  arduous  than 
that  of  youths  of  the  same  age  employed  in  offices 
and  shops  and  around  mines.  Assuming  seventeen 
hours  per  week,  each  hour  supposed  to  involve 
two  hours  of  preparation  and  we  have  a  total  of 
fifty-one  hours  per  week  spent  on  studies. 
Assuming  that  four  of  the  seventeen  hours  were 
laboratory  work,  which  counts  one-half,  the  stu- 
dent has  then  actually  put  in  about  fifty-nine  hours 
per  week  on  his  work.  This  is  an  average  of  prac- 
tically ten  hours  per  day  for  six  days.  In  the 
mining  course  above  described  the  laboratory; 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  69 

periods  may  be  deducted,  that  is,  only  the  time 
placed  in  the  schedule  may  be  counted.  It  will  be 
seen  then  that  there  is  not  a  great  difference. 
The  work,  however,  at  all  mining  schools  is  much 
heavier  than  the  work  at  other  schools.  There  is 
one  item,  however,  to  be  fully  considered  in  all 
statements  regarding  work  at  all  colleges  and 
universities.  Very  few  students  actually  spend 
two  hours  in  preparation  for  one  hour  of  lecture 
or  recitation.  The  children  in  the  grammar 
schools  put  in  five  hours  per  day  for  five  days  and 
many  of  them  spend  two  hours  per  day  in  home 
work,  thus  getting  in  thirty-five  hours  per  week. 
Very  few  men  who  have  gone  through  the  average 
schools  have  considered  themselves  hard  worked, 
except  while  in  school,  saying  in  later  years  that 
they  could  easily  have  carried  more  work  if  com- 
pelled to  do  so.  Eighteen  hours  class  and  six  hours 
laboratory,  a  total  of  twenty-one  catalogue  hours, 
is  not  too  much  to  ask  of  engineering  students,  and 
if  this  were  done  and  a  longer  course  given,  a  more 
general  education  would  make  them  better  men 
and  increase  their  opportunity  to  earn  a  living 
after  leaving  school. 

The  fact  that  students  are  required  at  many 
institutions  to  select  a  specialty  at  the  end  of  their 
Freshman  year,  before  they  have  a  realizing  sense 
of  what  the  profession  is,  has  been  referred  to. 
This  happens  for  several  reasons.  In  the  first 
place  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  advertising  done 


70         ENGINEEKING  AS  A  .VOCATION, 

by  all  schools  to  attract  students  and  when  one 
school  advertises  a  certain  special  course  all  the 
other  schools  near  by  feel  compelled  to  follow  suit 
or  fall  in  the  estimation  of  the  public. 

The  newspapers  are  greatly  to  blame  for  get- 
ting parents  of  growing  boys  excited.  A  large 
city  constructs  a  vast  water  works  system  and  the 
project  attracts  the  attention  of  special  newspaper 
and  magazine  writers  who  play  the  thing  for  all  it 
is  worth.  Little  wonder  when  some  of  these  men 
receive  $50  per  page.  In  the  descriptions  a  great 
deal  of  attention  is  paid  to  the  picturesque  side 
of  the  engineer's  work  and  the  few  engineers  who 
receive  large  salaries  are  paraded  before  the  pub- 
lic until  the  fathers  and  mothers  begin  to  believe 
that  their  sons  must  study  hydraulic  engineering. 
The  schools  hunting  for  students  scent  the  popular 
demand  and  immediately  thereafter  it  is 
announced  that  courses  in  the  highly  paid  specialty 
of  hydraulic  engineering  are  to  be  started.  The 
work  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Eoad  Inquiry 
compelled  the  starting  of  many  special  courses  in 
highway  engineering.  A  great  piece  of  sanitary 
work  like  the  Chicago  drainage  canal  or  the  Wash- 
ington filtration  plant  calls  for  special  courses  in 
sanitary  engineering.  The  wonderful  interest  in 
concrete  work  during  the  past  ten  years,  due  to  the 
advertising  of  the  cement  manufacturers,  has 
stimulated  interest  in  concrete  engineering  and 
thousands  of  boys  are  specializing  in  reinforced 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  .VOCATION         71 

concrete  design.  Always  the  same  idea  to  get  into 
line  on  some  kind  of  work  that  is  exciting  public 
interest  with  the  idea  that  bigger  pay  may  be  had. 
Few  of  the  young  fellows  who  take  up  a  specialty 
are  really  imbued  with  a  love  for  engineering  work, 
but  are  going  into  it  with  the  mistaken  idea  that 
it  pays  well,  provided  a  fellow  can  select  the  most 
popular  line. 

In  the  larger  schools,  owing  to  the  sizes  of  the 
classes  it  is  impossible  for  any  teacher  to  teach 
more  than  one  subject,  so  the  schools  are  full  of 
specialists,  each  clamoring  to  be  the  head  of  a 
department  and  this,  added  to  the  will-o'-the-wisp 
search  of  parents  for  remunerative  vocations  for 
their  offspring  hurts  the  profession.  The  writer, 
in  common  with  the  majority  of  engineers  who  have 
had  a  fairly  broad  experience,  believes  the  desig- 
nations of  Civil,  Mechanical,  Electrical  and  Min- 
ing Engineer  should  disappear  in  the  curriculum 
of  the  schools  and  there  should  be  given  one  gen- 
eral engineering  course,  with  special  courses  which 
the  graduates  may  take  later.  This  general  course 
could  be  so  arranged  as  to  afford  considerable 
choice  of  subjects  in  the  last  year,  thus  enabling 
a  student  to  specialize  along  certain  lines  only 
after  he  has  completed  the  fundamentals  of  all 
engineering  work,  and  has  had  sufficient  vacation 
experience  to  enable  him  to  choose  intelligently 
among  a  lot  of  offered  courses  those  which  he  feels 
sure  will  be  of  the  greatest  value  to  him  immedi- 


72  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

ately  upon  graduation.  The  schools  might  also 
drop  the  three  months'  vacation  and  adopt  the  plan 
of  the  Michigan  College  of  Mines,  Houghton, 
Mich.,  and  the  University  of  Chicago,  in  which 
the  year  is  divided  into  four  twelve-week  terms. 
The  student  may  take  three  terms  each  year  and 
complete  the  course  in  four  years,  or,  by  taking 
four  terms  each  year  complete  the  course  in  three 
calendar  years.  A  proper  engineering  course, 
however,  cannot  be  completed  in  four  school  years, 
or  three  calendar  years  if  the  greatest  good  is  to 
result  to  the  student. 

As  will  be  referred  to  further  on  the  managers 
of  large  corporations  and  special  interests  are  also 
largely  responsible  for  the  numerous  specialties  in 
engineering  schools.  The  profession  is  now  so  well 
stocked  with  embryo  engineers  that  the  schools 
can  well  afford  to  cease  adopting  methods  for 
attracting  students  and  devote  more  time  to  turn- 
ing out  the  very  best  possible  product.  The  slogan 
of  the  advanced  woman  is  "Not  more  children,  but 
better  children,"  and  the  schools  having  more  than 
caught  up  with  the  legitimate  demand  for  engi- 
neers can  afford  to  say  "Not  more  engineering 
graduates,  but  the  best  possible  quality  of  grad- 
uates." How  the  state  universities  will  be  able  to 
do  this  the  writer  will  not  attempt  to  answer,  but 
the  privately  endowed  institutions  can  well  afford 
to  do  it.  By  a  reduction  in  the  size  of  the  classes 
they  will  require  smaller  quarters  and  less  equip- 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  73 

ment  and  can  afford  to  employ  a  smaller  number  of 
instructors,  who  should  receive  larger  pay.  Owing 
to  the  very  large  number  of  students  and  the  result- 
ing large  number  of  underpaid  instructors  the 
best  trained  engineers  are  not  always  to  be  found 
among  the  graduates  of  the  larger  institutions  with 
their  well-equipped  laboratories  and  shops.  Many 
kings  among  engineers  have  been  turned  out  of 
schools  not  sufficiently  equipped  according  to 
modern  standards,  but  with  the  log  on  which  Mark 
Hopkins  sat  and  the  faithful  old  teacher  whose 
heart  is  in  his  work  sitting  at  one  end,  ready  to 
prove  that  after  all  a  sound  training  in  the  funda- 
mentals of  engineering  science  goes  a  long  way 
when  the  material  to  work  upon  is  of  proper  cali- 
ber. A  good  workman  can  do  fine  work  with  a 
very  lean  equipment  of  tools  when  his  material  is 
good.  The  best  workman  with  the  finest  tools, 
however,  does  only  a  botch  job  with  poor  material. 
More  care  should  be  exercised  in  the  admission  of 
students  and  the  publicity  managers  should  be 
cautioned  to  be  careful  in  advertising  the  engi- 
neering courses. 

In  European  schools  there  seems  to  be  no  rule 
about  the  granting  of  degrees.  The  custom  seems 
to  be  to  give  a  diploma  to  a  graduate,  who  then 
styles  himself  "Dipl.  Eng.,"  and  after  he  has 
acquired  some  standing  and  presents  a  thesis  to 
show  he  possesses  capacity  to  do  original  work,  he 
is  granted  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Engineering, 


74  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 


the  word  " Doctor"  signifying  "A  person  of  great 
learning;  a  superior  teacher." 

In  America  the  degree  awarded  depends  to 
some  extent,  in  fact,  largely,  upon  the  attitude  of 
the  advertising  department  of  the  school.  A  false 
estimate  is  placed  upon  the  salary  attracting  value 
of  a  degree  by  the  boys  who  attend  engineer- 
ing schools  and  by  their  parents.  Students  are 
attracted  to  a  school  by  the  advertisement  that 
upon  graduation  they  will  receive  the  degree  of 
C.E.  (Civil  Engineer)  ;  M.E.  (Mechanical  Engi- 
neer) ;  E.E.  (Electrical  Engineer),  or  E.M.  (Engi- 
neer of  Mines).  The  school,  therefore,  that  is 
anxious  to  attract  students  is  apt  to  give  the  pro- 
fessional degree  upon  graduation.  The  absurdity 
of  this,  however,  is  gradually  filtering  into  the 
heads  of  the  advertising  managers  of  the  best 
schools  and  the  professional  degree  is  being  shelved 
by  some  and  has  been  abandoned  by  others. 

No  school  can  graduate  an  engineer.  The  engi- 
neer must  have  experience  added  to  the  school 
training.  The  school  can  only  give  an  education 
in  the  fundamentals  of  engineering  science.  Engi- 
neering is  not  wholly  an  exact  science,  but  is  mainly 
an  art  depending  upon  scientific  methods  for  its 
existence  and  growth.  The  school  gives  only  the 
scientific  groundwork  and  hence  should  confer 
degrees  only  in  science.  The  engineer  supplements 
this  scientific  training  with  practical  experience  so 
that,  by  and  by,  the  scientist  sent  out  by  the  school 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  75 

becomes  a  man  who  practises  an  art  in  a  scientific 
way. 

A  few  good  schools  still  give  the  professional 
degree  instead  of  a  bachelor  degree  upon  com- 
pletion of  the  four-year  course.  The  majority, 
however,  of  the  better  schools  now  grant  the  degree 
of  Bachelor  of  Science.  A  student  taking  one  or 
two  years  additional  work  in  residence  receives 
upon  completion  of  this  work  the  professional 
degree,  but  few  except  those  who  intend  to  become 
teachers  take  any  graduate  work.  An  attempt  was 
made  a  year  or  two  ago  to  have  the  schools  abandon 
the  professional  degree  altogether,  for  the  letters 
C.E.,  M.B.,  etc.,  are  merely  abbreviations  of  the 
words  Civil  Engineer,  Mechanical  Engineer,  etc., 
and,  as  such,  are  assumed  by  a  great  many  men 
without  college  training,  who  are  practising  engi- 
neering. There  are  no  laws  to  prevent  them  from 
doing  so  if  they  wish,  so  the  professional  degree  is 
now  not  only  an  absurdity,  but  it  is  also  meaning- 
less. The  men  who  have  received  it  by  doing  extra 
work  prize  it,  but  wish  there  was  some  protection 
afforded  the  rightful  owners. 

Instead  of  the  professional  degree  it  is  pro- 
posed to  substitute  the  degree  of  Master  of  Science 
as  a  second  degree,  for  graduate  work.  For  a  third 
degree  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Science  in  Engi- 
neering is  proposed  for  additional  work  of  a 
research  nature  to  engineering  teachers  and  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Engineering  for  research  work 


76  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

for  men  who  are  practising  engineering  and  have 
taken  this  additional  work  in  residence.  This 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Engineering  to  be  also  an 
honorary  degree  to  be  conferred  on  engineers 
eminent  in  their  profession  who  have  been  in 
active  practice  not  less  than  twenty-five  years. 
Degrees  are  academic  affairs  and  the  younger 
engineers  are  just  as  well  off  with  a  diploma  or 
almost  any  kind  of  a  certificate  setting  forth  the 
extent  of  the  engineering  education  received. 
Older  men  prize  degrees  as  an  attest  of  standing. 
With  teachers  the  degree  is  purely  a  matter  of 
business  and  engineering  should  have  degrees  like 
any  other  university  subject. 

A  great  many  men  seek  degrees  and  prize  them 
so  the  way  the  matter  often  works  out  was  called 
to  the  attention  of  the  writer  some  time  ago.  A 
young  chap  who  was  a  " shark"  at  mathematics 
and  all  the  purely  theoretical  subjects  and  purely 
scientific  subjects  in  his  course,  graduated  from 
a  high-class  engineering  school  and  tried  to  work 
as  an  engineer.  To  explain  things  that  happened  it 
is  well  to  say  that  among  many  of  his  classmates  he 
was  known  as  " Kitty,"  the  name  being  intended  to 
designate  something  real  nice  and  dainty.  He  was 
a  positive  failure  as  a  practising  engineer.  He 
lacked  tact.  He  lacked  real  horse-sense.  He  made 
people  feel  as  if  he  might  be  soiled  if  touched  or 
might  cry  if  spoken  to  rudely.  He  lacked  accuracy 
in  most  of  the  common-place  work  he  was  given 


ENGINEEKING  AS  A  VOCATION"  77 

and  was  a  hair  splitter  of  the  most  exasperating 
kind.  He  was  also  greatly  given  to  argument  and 
had  a  poor  sense  of  proportion,  as  applied  to  com- 
parisons of  school-bred  and  practically  trained 
men.  As  an  instance  of  how  abjectly  he  failed  to 
satisfy  his  employers  he  worked  in  five  offices  in 
a  period  of  seven  months  in  a  busy  year  when  men 
were  in  demand.  He  got  a  job  finally  as  time- 
keeper on  a  construction  job  and  held  it  one  week 
after  making  a  number  of  mistakes  and  showing 
plainly  that  he  did  not  fit  in  with  the  rough  work. 
The  rush  and  hurry  bothered  him  also,  for  he  was, 
by  nature  and  cultivation,  made  for  the  schoolroom 
and  the  library.  In  fact,  he  should  really  have 
studied  for  the  ministry.  He  was  a  good-looking 
chap  and  had  a  kind  heart,  so  that  the  men  imposed 
on  him  with  hard-luck  stories  everywhere  he 
worked.  Finally  he  landed  a  job  as  a  tracer  and 
general  helper  in  a  railway  office,  which  job  he  held 
until  the  following  fall,  when  he  went  back  to 
school  to  take  advanced  work  and  obtain  the  degree 
of  C.E.  His  experience  of  fifteen  months  in  "prac- 
tical" work  enabled  him  to  get  a  billet  as  instructor 
upon  graduation.  His  short  experience  proved 
that  he  had  not  the  makings  of  an  engineer  in  him, 
or  perhaps  that  what  he  might  have  had  originally 
had  been  educated  out  of  him.  Although  his  col- 
lege dubbed  him  "Civil  Engineer"  and  the  diploma 
hanging  in  his  bedroom  attests  the  fact,  he  is  not 
one  and  never  will  be  one  in  the  sense  that  an 


78  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

engineer  is  generally  meant.  To  do  the  man  justice 
it  is  fair  to  say  that  he  is  a  shining  success  as  a 
teacher.  Rankine,  however,  the  greatest  professor 
of  engineering,  was  a  practising  engineer  for  years 
and  resigned  as  chief  engineer  of  a  railway  to 
become  a  professor. 

Prom  the  school  which  graduated  " Kitty" 
another  man  of  the  same  age  graduated  a  year  or 
two  earlier.  He  made  friends  on  every  piece  of 
work  on  which  he  was  employed.  In  the  office  and 
in  the  field  he  seemed  to  be  equally  at  home.  When 
he  was  laid  off  it  was  because  the  job  had  ended 
and  all  his  past  employers  praise  him  highly, 
except  one,  who  was  a  pretentious  man  of  small 
parts  on  whose  pet  hobbies  the  better  educated 
young  man,  pardonably  bumptious  because  of  his 
youth,  stepped  rather  hard  a  few  times.  After 
several  years  of  successful  work  he  applied  to  his 
Alma  Mater  for  the  professional  degree.  It  had  so 
happened  that  opportunity  had,  as  yet,  thrown  no 
important  work  his  way,  his  positions  having  all 
been  minor  ones  as  assistant.  He  made  good,  how- 
ever, and  is  a  graduate  of  whom  a  school  should 
feel  well  satisfied.  He  will  do  big  things  some  day 
when  the  opportunity  comes,  for  it  is  in  him.  His 
request  for  the  professional  degree  was  not  granted 
"  because  his  ability  to  do  original  work  is  not 
proven  and  the  work  he  has  so  far  been  engaged 
upon  has  been  in  minor  positions  carrying  little 
responsibility."  The  reasons  for  declining  to  give 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  .VOCATION         79 

him  the  coveted  degree  may  be  good,  but  he  was 
further  informed  that  if  he  put  in  one  year  of  resi- 
dence work  he  could  obtain  it.  It  is  plain  to  any- 
one that  the  man  who  is  now  sporting  the  degree 
of  " Civil  Engineer"  is  really  a  Master  of  Science 
and  such  should  have  been  the  degree  given  to  him. 
If  he  did  not  feel  the  incongruity  of  the  matter  the 
second  young  man,  the  real  engineer,  would  not  fee! 
so  bitterly  over  it.  He  does  not  object  in  the  least 
to  the  school  placing  a  high  value  on  the  pro- 
fessional degree,  but  he  feels  queer  when  he  meets 
" Kitty"  and  knows  that  the  school  calls  him  an 
engineer  while  practical  men  under  whom  he  tried 
to  work  call  him  things  not  so  complimentary. 

The  graduate  of  a  technical  school  should  be 
able  to  think  and  reason  mathematically.  He 
should  not  think  in  mathematics,  which  is  some- 
thing different ;  the  man  who  does  the  latter  being 
better  fitted  to  become  a  physicist,  or  a  teacher  of 
mathematics.  No  student  should  become  absorbed 
in  the  tools,  for,  if  he  does,  he  will  forget  their 
proper  use.  Too  many  graduates  come  out  with 
very  vague  ideas  of  their  life  work  and  this  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  even  the  best  school  cannot  make 
an  engineer  of  the  unfit.  It  is  a  reminder  of  the  old 
proverb  about  the  silk  purse  and  the  sow's  ear. 

Many  practical  men,  unaware  of  the  difficulties 
under  which  a  teacher  must  labor,  condemn  whole- 
sale the  American  schools  and  praise  the  schools  of 
Europe,  especially  of  Germany.  No  one  doubts  the 


80  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

very  high  standing  of  the  German  schools,  but  the 
difference  is  in  the  lower  grades  rather  than  in  the 
higher  schools,  the  technical  high  school  in  Ger- 
many corresponding  to  our  technical  schools  here. 
Many  eminent  Germans  have  said  the  American 
engineering  schools  are  as  good  as  any  in  the  world, 
as  engineering  schools,  but  that  as  schools  devoted 
to  research  and  research  methods  they  are  inferior 
to  the  schools  of  Europe.  The  American  public 
school  system  is  based  on  the  idea  that  each  male 
pupil  has  an  equal  chance  to  occupy  the  Presi- 
dential chair  and  that  each  girl  has  an  equal 
chance  to  become  the  wife  of  the  President.  This 
idea  is  carried  out  to  some  extent  in  the  engineer- 
ing schools,  where  the  endeavor  seems  to  be  to 
train  boys  to  fill  positions  as  chief  engineers.  Rest- 
lessness, envy  and  discontent  are  marked  American 
traits  and  these,  in  part,  account  for  the  success  of 
so  many  foreign  engineers  who  come  to  the  United 
States  and  succeed,  even  with  the  handicap  of 
having  to  learn  a  new  language.  Few  teachers  in 
American  engineering  schools  tell  the  truth  to 
their  pupils  about  conditions  as  they  actually  exist. 
Nothing  is  said  about  the  ninety-nine  privates  in 
the  company,  to  use  a  military  simile,  but  the  cap- 
tain is  a  hero.  The  captain  himself,  however,  is 
only  a  minor  officer  and  it  is  the  colonel  over  twelve 
captains  and  the  generals  over  three  or  nine 
colonels,  who  are  held  up  as  examples  for  the 
emulation  of  the  boy.  The  majority  of  the  schools 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  81 

do  not  aim  to  fit  the  boys  to  fill  the  positions  in 
the  ranks  and  fill  them  acceptably,  so  that  finally 
the  private  may  become  a  corporal,  the  corporal  a 
sergeant,  the  sergeant  by  hard  effort  becomes  a 
lieutenant  and  then  having  placed  his  feet  on  the 
lower  round  of  the  ladder  of  promotion,  his  future 
is  secure.  The  majority  of  the  graduates  look 
upon  themselves  as  cadets  in  training  for  a  com- 
mission which  is  theirs  by  right  of  scholastic  train- 
ing, upon  graduation. 

The  boys  may  be  taught  to  do  the  work  that 
belongs  to  the  minor  positions,  but  they  are  taught 
no  respect  for  the  work,  it  being  regarded  as  some- 
thing disagreeable  which  all  young  fellows  must 
do  for  awhile,  but  which  should  not  be  done  for  a 
long  time,  nor  be  considered  as  anything  more  than 
a  bit  of  perfunctory  training.  The  German  studies 
for  the  power  that  education  gives  him.  The 
American  boy  studies  to  enable  him  to  earn  big 
money  and  escape  drudgery.  This  is  shown  by  the 
rush  toward  specialties  reflecting  big  work  being 
done  in  the  vicinity  of  the  homes  of  the  students. 
The  German  does  not  grumble  at  the  prospect  of 
six  years  of  severe  training,  during  which  time  he 
imbibes  a  love  for  the  work,  while  the  constant 
cry  of  Americans  is  that  vocational  courses  in 
portions  of  engineering  work  be  cut  down  to  two 
years. 

A  prominent  educator,  in  addressing  a  class  of 
engineering  students  said,  "Our  aims  are  high.  If 


82  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

I  thought  that  this  school  will  turn  out  any  men 
who  will  be  nothing  better  than  draftsmen  and 
detail  men  all  their  lives,  I  would  feel  ashamed  and 
deem  the  school  a  failure."  It  is  unfortunate 
remarks  such  as  this  that  cause  many  men  to  fail, 
"For  who  hath  despised  the  day  of  small  things." 
The  German  idea  of  education  is  different  from 
the  American,  so  that  boys  going  to  the  technical 
high  schools  are  better  trained  in  the  minor 
things  than  the  average  American  boy  is  trained. 
At  the  higher  schools  there  is  also  a  difference  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  "private  docent"  in  Germany, 
the  "tutor"  in  Great  Britain,  have  no  prototype 
in  American  schools.  The  student  here  is  wholly  at 
the  mercy  of  the  lazy  or  incompetent  instructor  for 
his  drill  in  mathematics  and  the  studies  lying  at 
the  foundation  of  the  training  for  his  future  life 
work,  seldom  coming  in  contact  with  the  high- 
grade  professor  until  in  the  two  final  years  he  has 
good  stiff  courses  to  take  with  him,  predicated 
upon  perfect  preparation.  If  he  flunks  he  must 
go  to  a  private  tutor  and  pay  him  $1  per  hour  for 
cram  work.  In  the  foreign  schools  he  can  desert 
the  regular  instructor  when  he  has  taken  his 
measure  and  go  to  the  outsider,  the  "privat 
docent,"  who  is,  however,  a  recognized  institution 
and  not  wholly  an  outsider.  The  higher  teachers 
are  often  recruited  from  the  ranks  of  the  "privat 
docents,"  or  "tutors,"  who  have  demonstrated 
their  fitness.  It  is  no  uncommon  thing  in  a 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  83 

European  university  to  find  a  "privat  docent"  in 
fairly  active  competition  with  a  well-known  pro- 
fessor. 

The  writer  has  no  wish  to  be  ranked  with  the 
men  who  are  wholesale  in  their  condemnation  of 
American  schools  of  engineering.  He  has  no  wish 
to  be  ranked  with  the  men  who  condemn  at  all,  but 
he  is  not  blind  to  some  grave  defects  which  are 
easily  remedied  and  which  exist  because  few 
teachers  are .  able  to  realize  that  their  former 
students  have  grown  to  be  men,  and  actually  have 
a  better  knowledge  of  conditions  than  the  teachers 
themselves.  Few  men  whose  opinions  are  worth 
anything  care  to  see  much  of  a  change  from  stand- 
ard curricula. 

Engineering  teachers  have  organizations,  as 
before  mentioned,  in  which  many  prominent 
practitioners  hold  membership.  In  many  schools 
the  alumnae  are  represented  on  the  governing- 
boards  and  these  men  endeavor  to  correct  defects 
they  observed  while  students.  There  are  many 
teachers  who  are  not  graybearded  book  worms,  but 
who  are  live,  energetic  men  who  made  a  success  of 
practical  work  and  later  took  up  teaching  from 
choice.  Many  of  them  are  of  high  rank  as  con- 
sulting engineers,  and  in  conventions  of  engineers 
are  listened  to  with  respect  and  are  placed  at  the 
heads  of  good  committees.  "  Common  sense  and 
mathematics"  are  a  good  combination. 

Considering  the  fact  that  the  financial  reward 


84  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

of  the  teacher  is  limited  and  fixed  in  amount,  a 
deadening  influence  on  most  men,  it  is  gratifying 
to  meet  so  many  high-minded,  energetic  teachers 
whose  fondness  for  their  work  leads  them  to  stay 
with  it  when  everyone  who  meets  them  knows 
they  are  able  to  compete  with  the  best  men 
on  the  outside.  The  writer  never  visits  an  engi- 
neering school  without  experiencing  the  charm 
that  holds  men  in  the  walls  and  believes  that  in 
many  ways  the  rewards  of  the  profession  are 
greater  for  the  high-minded,  high-grade  teacher 
than  for  the  leading  practising  engineer.  All  suc- 
cess cannot  be  measured  in  financial  terms.  One 
amusing  thought,  however,  is  that  all  engineering 
teachers  class  themselves  with  the  best  of  the  active 
practitioners  and  thus  count  themselves  very  much 
underpaid,  this  having  considerable  to  do  with 
their  lack  of  results. 

The  principal  defect  in  engineering  schools  is 
the  " inbreeding"  caused  by  a  too  rapid  growth  of 
the  engineering  department  and  lack  of  sufficient 
funds  to  procure  proper  instructors.  Many 
instructors  are  of  the  " God-to-be-pitied"  class,  so 
that  a  home  is  necessary  for  them.  The  pay  in 
the  grade  of  instructor  is  so  low  that  a  man  who 
is  well  adapted  to  go  out  into  the  world  and  win 
a  living  in  competition  with  other  men  in  the  same 
line  of  work  will  not  consider  it.  The  result  is 
that  numbers  of  young  men  graduate  from  a  school 
in  the  spring  and  in  the  fall  enter  the  same  school 


ENGINEERING   AS  A  VOCATION  85 

as  instructors,  their  knowledge  limited  to  what  is 
taught  within  the  walls  of  that  institution,  and, 
like  all  small  men,  become  vainglorious  and 
prideful  within  a  few  years  so  that  progress  for 
them  is  impossible.  The  boys  who  pass  under  their 
hands  are  in  a  pitiful  plight.  In  mathematics  and 
physics  especially,  these  men  are  bad,  for  after 
conducting  one  class  through  the  text  book  the 
teacher  can  rest  his  brain  and  become  just  as  lazy 
as  he  likes,  and  that  is  often  very  lazy  indeed 
when  a  man's  brain  begins  to  atrophy,  so  that 
many  professors  actually  get  the  idea  strongly 
fixed  in  their  heads  that  "once  a  teacher,  always 
a  teacher,"  regardless  of  whether  their  work  is 
productive  of  real  results.  On  this  point  the 
reader  is  referred  to  an  editorial  entitled  "About 
Dismissing  Professors,"  in  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly  for  March,  1911. 

Many  instructors  did  try  practical  work  for  a 
short  time  after  graduation,  as  will  be  remembered 
was  the  case  with  "Kitty,"  but  returned  to  the 
school,  like  a  cat  to  a  comfortable  home,  when 
opportunity  offered.  Teaching  is  a  distinct  call- 
ing and  many  do  make  excellent  teachers  finally, 
but  the  present  hap-hazard  way  of  holding  on  to 
teachers  without  requiring  definite  results  from 
their  work  is  not  seemly  when  taken  in  connection 
with  such  a  practical  profession  as  that  of  engi- 
neering. Teachers  should  be  better  paid  and 
should  be  retained,  as  other  workers  are,  only 


86  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

when  they  prove  their  ability.  Many  teachers 
resent  very  strongly  the  idea  that  their  work 
should  be  measured  by  results.  The  college  to  a 
teacher  is  a  home,  and  sometimes  a  graduate, 
smarting  under  insult,  injustice  and  incompetency, 
has  to  wait  twenty  years  before  he  can  get  on  the 
governing  board  of  his  Alma  Mater  and  attend 
personaly  to  the  discharge  of  a  teacher  he  knows 
to  be  unfit. 

Practical  men  frequently  state  that  in  no  line 
of  work  can  a  man  make  a  living  with  less  real 
effort  and  smaller  results  than  as  a  member  of  a 
teaching  force  in  a  college,  engineering  schools 
not  excepted.  The  same  trouble  is  found  in  pub- 
lic offices  and  in  the  offices  of  all  large  corporations 
where  there  are  enough  good,  earnest,  hard 
workers  to  enable  a  lot  of  lazy  incompetents  to 
hold  down  jobs  without  detection.  The  pay  of 
a  professor  lags  about  ten  years  behind  the 
average  of  the  pay  of  engineers  in  active  prac- 
tice. At  the  start  there  is  scarcely  any  difference, 
but  the  teaching  engineer  has  an  advantage  in 
that  he  holds  practically  a  life  position,  where  he 
may,  if  he  wishes,  work  with  all  the  enthusiasm 
and  energy  of  the  clock-watching  clerk.  The  pay 
of  a  good  professor  never  rises  above  the  average 
the  first-class,  successful  engineer  may  figure  con- 
fidently on  securing  after  fifteen  years'  work. 
A  good  professor  however,  often  makes  a  great 
deal  of  money  as  a  consulting  engineer,  his  work 


ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION  87 

for  the  school  being  the  finest  sort  of  advertise- 
ment. 

A  vast  improvement  might  be  made  in  many 
schools  by  making  it  a  rule  to  require  all  instruc- 
tors to  be  graduates  of  other  schools,  with  not 
less  than  two  years'  practical  experience  after 
graduation.  The  instructors  should  not  be 
employed  upon  one  study,  but  should  be  required 
to  be  prepared  to  teach  at  least  four  subjects,  one 
subject  each  semester,  thus  compelling  them  to 
grow.  It  is  deadening  for  a  man  to  teach  graphics 
all  his  life,  or  to  carry  advanced  algebra  year  after 
year,  or  to  teach  any  subject  in  which  the  advance 
to-day  is  small,  if  there  is  any  advance.  Too  much 
specialization  is  the  trouble  with  the  schools,  not 
alone  in  the  courses  taught,  but  in  the  teachers. 

In  American  schools  there  is  a  class  of  teachers 
known  as  "flunkers,"  who  seem  to  think  that 
about  25  per  cent,  is  the  minimum  number  to 
" flunk"  at  examination.  What  would  be  thought 
of  a  workman  in  a  factory  if  25  per  cent,  of  his 
product  day  after  day  were  condemned?  How 
many  days  would  he  last  ?  A  teacher  who  regularly 
flunks  a  high  number  of  his  students  is  a  misfit, 
for  a  real  teacher  will  soon  remedy  the  trouble,  if 
there  be  any  other  trouble  than  laziness  on  his 
part.  Sometimes  it  appears  to  an  outsider  that 
instead  of  the  teachers  who  handle  the  students 
during  the  first  two  years  being  the  most  poorly 
paid,  the  case  should  be  reversed  and  the  pro- 


88  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

fessors  in  the  foundation  studies  should  receive 
the  highest  pay  and  take  charge  of  the  students 
from  the  day  they  enter  college.  The  graduate 
requires  his  mathematics  during  the  last  two  years 
of  school  and  during  the  three  years  immediately 
following  graduation.  The  higher  engineering 
problems,  for  which  he  is  most  carefully  trained 
by  the  highest  paid  men  in  school,  are  things  he 
cannot  hope  to  approach  for  many  years  after 
graduation,  for  the  outside  world  deems  con- 
siderable experience  is  first  necessary.  When 
ready  finally  to  take  up  such  problems  there  should 
be  no  difficulty  in  reading  up  and  studying  the 
matter,  for  on  such  projects  one  is  seldom  unduly 
hurried.  It  is  really  in  the  fundamentals,  th.e 
tools  of  his  work,  he  should  be  best  trained. 

Require  not  less  than  two  years'  practical 
experience  before  appointing  a  man  an  instructor 
and  also  require  recommendations  from  his 
employers,  to  insure  getting  an  intelligent  man. 
Do  not  select  as  an  instructor  a  graduate  of  the 
institution.  No  man  should  be  appointed  an  assist- 
ant professor  until  he  has  been  an  instructor  at 
least  five  years,  and  in  the  case  of  an  assistant  pro- 
fessor there  is  no  objection  to  taking  a  graduate  of 
the  institution,  providing  he  has  had  not  less  than 
two  years'  practical  work,  and  has  taught  in 
another  engineering  school  not  less  than  five  years. 
This  will  do  away  with  " inbreeding"  and  should 
keep  men  alive. 


ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION  89 

To  ascertain  just  how  well  the  teachers  are 
doing  their  work  permit  the  graduates  to  help 
improve  conditions.  The  fifth  year  after  grad- 
uation, thus  allowing  time  for  the  clearing  away 
of  youthful  bitterness  and  animosity,  each  grad- 
uate should  be  sent  a  blank  to  be  carefully  filled 
in,  in  which  he  is  to  reply  categorically  to  a  list  of 
inquiries  respecting  the  members  of  the  teaching 
force  at  the  school  while  he  was  there.  This  report 
to  be  confidential  between  the  man  who  makes  it 
and  the  President  of  the  institution.  The  grad- 
uates can  thus  have  full  opportunity  to  help  their 
Alma  Mater  and  show-up  the  weak  points  of  the 
teaching  staff,  and  if  the  head  of  the  institution  is 
fit  for  his  position  he  will  know  what  to  do,  and 
how  to  do  it.  In  studying  such  reports  he  is  not 
dealing  with  immature  graduates,  but  with  men 
who  are  experiencing  the  hard  knocks  of  life, 
after  having  supposedly  been  prepared  for  their 
life  work  at  the  school  whose  instructors  they  are 
invited  to  criticise. 

The  essential  difference  between  engineering 
instruction  in  Germany  and  America  is  that  the 
attempt  is  made  in  Germany  to  give  a  complete 
scientific  course  and  train  men  in  the  application 
of  science  to  industry.  They  graduate  technicians 
there.  Even  with  the  amount  of  practical  work 
now  required,  the  graduate  is  a  technically-trained 
scientist,  who  understands  that  his  education  is 
for  power,  and  that  it  alone  does  not  entitle  him 


90  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

to  high  pay,  but  that  it  does  open  wide  for  him 
the  door  of  opportunity.  The  American  ideal  has 
been  lower  and  too  much  the  result  of  listening  too 
closely  to  criticism.  In  fact,  the  principal  faults 
in  the  American  schools  are  due  to  the  endeavor 
of  the  teachers  to  give  the  students  what 
a  century  of  training  has  shown  to  be  about 
right,  and,  at  the  same  time,  try  to  satisfy  the 
selfishness  of  men  who  want  well-trained,  narrow 
specialists  without  bearing  any  of  the  expense 
of  training  them. 

When  specialties  are  discussed  it  is  well  to 
remember  that  it  is  difficult  to  train  a  man  thor- 
oughly in  a  minor  subject  without  causing  him 
to  lose  the  sense  of  proportion  he  must  maintain, 
if  he  is  ever  to  be  more  than  a  part  of  a  machine. 
Whether  all  the  boys  are  fit  to  be  engineers  or 
not,  they  represent  a  select  lot  of  humanity  when 
they  finally  finish  the  grind  and  get  their  diplomas. 
A  large  percentage  of  them  should  amount  to 
something  later  in  life.  That  more  do  not  meet 
with  considerable  success  is  due  to  the  wilful  blind- 
ness of  the  deans,  who  act  as  employment  agents 
for  large  corporations,  in  their  anxiety  to  advertise 
to  the  world  that  "this  school,  owing  to  its  excellent 
methods  of  instruction,  cannot  supply  the  demand 
for  graduates."  It  requires  the  use  of  the  short, 
ugly  word  to  properly  characterize  these  state- 
ments in  many  cases. 

Many  large  corporations  like  to  fill  their  offices 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  91 

and  works  with  well-educated  men,  because  the 
average  young  educated  man  has  been  advised  by 
his  instructors  to  work  for  low  pay  during  the 
first  years  after  college  "to  gain  experience." 
Thus  these  chaps  give  rather  more  for  the  money 
than  men  not  so  well  trained.  When  a  man  has 
been  selected  for  a  place  because  he  has  exhibited 
superior  qualifications  he  naturally  expects  a 
regular  increase  in  salary,  year  after  year,  even 
if  small.  When,  as  so  often  happens,  he  finds 
he  has  been  put  into  a  position  where  there  is  no 
hope  of  advancement  and  little  hope  for  better  pay 
he  becomes  discontented.  The  discontented  ones' 
are  marked  for  discharge  and  when  the  next 
annual  crop  of  graduates  is  harvested,  a  spell- 
binder from  the  corporation  goes  to  the  school  and 
leads  the  entire  class  to  the  slaughter  house,  the 
dean  rubbing  his  hands  gleefully  and  taking  never 
a  thought  in  after  years  for  the  poor,  misguided 
victims,  who  might  have  been  spared  if  he  had 
carefully  investigated  in  advance  the  positions 
offered  and  had  acted  like  a  father  to  his  boys. 
The  process  is  just  one  little  remove  more  cruel 
than  the  merciless  processes  of  nature,  as  set  forth 
in  the  works  of  Dr.  Darwin.  Out  of  it  a  few  men 
do  succeed,  but  the  waste  of  effort  is  needless  and 
the  waste  of  money  represented  by  the  sacrifices 
of  the  parents  of  the  slaughtered  boys  is  criminal. 

Some  students  enter  American  schools  with  so 
poor  an  idea  of  what  engineering  involves,  and 


92  ENGINEEKING  AS  A  VOCATION 

are  so  plainly  adapted  to  the  calling,  that  the 
problem  of  the  often  insufficient  preparation  is 
most  important.  Dr.  W.  G.  Kaymond,  Dean  of  the 
Engineering  Schools,  Iowa  State  University,  Iowa 
City,  Iowa,  has  adopted  a  method  which  is  similar 
to  what  is  known  as  "  Seminary"  in  European 
schools.  The  student,  unable  to  keep  up  with  the 
class,  is  taken  from  the  class  and  taught  topically, 
practically  individually,  until  his  sense  of  per- 
ception is  dilated,  when  he  goes  back  into  the  class, 
and  it  has  been  the  experience  that  such  men  are 
leaders  in  class  work  for  the  remainder  of  the 
course.  This  is  "unit"  instruction,  and,  as  the 
engineer  works  on  the  "unit"  system  in  after  life, 
it  is  good  that  some  of  his  instruction,  especially 
if  he  be  backward  or  deficient,  should  be  on  this 
system.  Professor  Schneider  of  the  University  of 
Cincinnati  has  been  very  successful  in  establish- 
ing combined  courses,  wherein  the  students  and 
instructors  alternate  between  the  school  and 
manufacturing  establishments,  the  length  of  the 
courses  being  six  years  instead  of  four,  in  order 
to  enable  the  student  to  sandwich  in  the  practical 
work  without  losing  what  he  requires  of  theory. 
These  combined  courses  are  now  becoming  stand- 
ard in  other  schools,  the  "Seminary"  method  of 
Dr.  Raymond  requiring  more  work  on  the  part  of 
the  teacher  and  also  requiring,  on  an  average,  a 
better  grade  of  teacher  in  the  minor  subjects.  The 
engineering  course  of  the  future  will  be  not  less 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  93 

than  six  years  in  length,  and  will  combine  the 
schools,  the  shop  and  the  topical  study  and  dis- 
cussion. 

The  engineering  course  of  the  future  will  not 
all  be  given  in  the  engineering  schools.  Since  fully 
90  per  cent,  of  the  men  employed  in  engineering 
work  do  not  require  the  complete  education  the 
engineer  should  have,  much  of  the  work  of  pre- 
paring the  large  majority  can  be  done  in  the  high 
schools.  Two  years  can  readily  be  added  to  the 
courses  in  the  high  schools,  so  that  boys  wanting 
to  go  into  technical  work  may  be  specially  trained. 
In  the  additional  two  years  can  be  given  all  the 
algebra,  trigonometry  and  analytical  geometry 
now  given  in  the  technical  school.  The  high  school, 
in  the  additional  two  years  should  also  give 
descriptive  geometry  and  drawing,  the  drawing 
course  being  so  arranged  that  finished  draftsmen, 
not  designers,  may  be  turned  out  fit  to  do  the 
ordinary  work  in  the  offices  of  engineers,  archi- 
tects and  manufacturers,  such  work  as  the  younger 
men  are  given.  The  high  school  can  also  give 
as  much  chemistry  and  physics  as  the  average 
engineering  school  now  gives.  The  use  of  survey- 
ing instruments  and  the  elements  of  land  survey- 
ing can  also  be  taught  in  the  high  school.  The 
shop  work  of  the  average  engineering  school, 
which  is  generally  an  advertising  feature  of 
ridiculously  little  practical  use,  can  be  given  in 
the  high  school.  This  additional  work  on  the  part 


94  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

of  the  high  school  will  answer  the  wide-spread 
demand  for  short-term  vocational  courses  and 
relieve  engineering  schools  of  much  elementary 
work.  The  engineering  schools  can  then  maintain 
their  courses  at  four  years,  demanding  as  entrance 
requirements  all  the  above  work  in  the  high  school. 
The  first  three  years  of  the  engineering  school  will 
then  be  a  general  technical  training,  with  plenty 
of  culture  studies,  the  students  specializing  in  the 
final  year  only,  and  not  specializing  narrowly. 


CHAPTER  IV 

HOME  STUDY  COURSES 

IN  an  earlier  chapter  the  writer  has  said  some- 
thing about  men  who  take  up  engineering  studies 
in  order  to  improve  their  standing  and  provide 
for  advancement.  He  has  no  sympathy  with  the 
man  who  can  afford  the  time  and  expense  to  attend 
a  resident  school  and  yet  deliberately  neglects  such 
an  opportunity  in  order  to  learn  the  business 
" practically,"  whatever  that  may  mean.  For  the 
man  who  is  really  fit  to  be  an  engineer  and  who  is 
unable  to  do  anything  more  than  study  alone  he 
has  the  utmost  sympathy.  For  many  years  the 
writer  has  conducted  classes  in  evening  schools, 
where  the  service,  rather  than  the  small  salary, 
is  considered  to  be  compensation,  and  he  is 
now  a  member  of  the  educational  committee  in 
the  Y.M.C.A.  Institute,  so  that  he  thinks  he  has 
a  pretty  fair  understanding  of  the  men  who 
imagine  they  would  like  to  "  learn  more  to  earn 
more."  There  are  enough  mature  earnest  men  to 
justify  him  in  giving  up  a  chapter  to  guidance  in 
home  study,  but  he  is  frank  to  say  that  an  enor- 
mous number  of  men  are  filled  with  desire  and 
not  with  ambition,  the  difference  not  being  plain 
to  many. 

95 


96  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

The  advantage  of  being  able  to  attend  a  night 
school  is  that  one  has  the  help  of  a  teacher,  a  great 
boon  to  men  taking  up  the  different  studies  con- 
nected with  engineering.  In  some  " practical" 
schools  the  instruction  is  individual  and  the 
schools  are  open  all  the  year.  They  exist  to  supply 
a  demand  for  education  from  men  who  wish  to 
quickly  increase  their  earning  ability  and  many 
of  them  labor  under  the  disadvantage  that  the 
teachers  do  not  guide  the  students  in  a  course  of 
study.  The  students  dictate  to  the  teachers  as 
to  what  they  want  and  if  the  teacher  thinks  dif- 
ferently some  other  school  gets  them.  A  few  of 
these  schools  are  excellent,  but  the  majority  are 
run  solely  to  make  money  and  for  the  good  of 
the  profession  should  be  suppressed. 

Many  high-class  institutions  now  have  eve- 
ning courses,  but  as  the  income  of  the  school  is 
not  dependent  upon  the  money  received  from  the 
students,  the  cost  generally  being  far  higher  than 
the  amount  charged  for  tuition,  each  student  is 
expected  to  enter  a  class  and  receive  class  instruc- 
tion. The  courses  extend  over  practically  as  many 
months  as  the  courses  in  the  day  school,  but  this 
in  years  means  more  than  double,  for  the  evening 
classes  continue  for  only  about  six  months  in  each 
year  and  for  two  or  three  evenings  in  each  week. 
Mght-class  students  generally  want  something  in 
a  hurry  and  the  course  that  only  occupies  their 
time  for  half  the  year,  and  is  arranged  to  cover 


ENGINEEKING  AS  A  VOCATION  97 

from  three  to  six  years  looks  apalling.  Another 
drawback  is  the  class  method,  due  to  the  necessity 
for  keeping  down  instructional  cost,  so  that  when 
the  student  misses  an  evening  once  in  a  while,  he 
becomes  discouraged. 

The  Association  Institute  in  Chicago  has 
adopted  an  excellent  method  in  which  courses  in 
the  night  school  are  arranged  so  that  each  may  be 
fully  completed  in  a  season.  Instead  of  compelling 
a  student  to  start  in  at  the  rudiments  of  all  engi- 
neering science,  he  is  taken  as  far  as  his  previous 
training  will  permit  in  the  subject  he  has  chosen, 
endeavors  being  made  to  have  him  later  take  more 
of  the  fundamentals  and  finally  pursue  inter- 
mediate and  advanced  courses  covering  the  same 
ground.  This  may  be  radical  and  a  copy  of  the 
methods  of  the  schools  run  for  profit,  but  the  aim 
of  the  school  is  to  help  the  student  and  the  small 
fees  charged  indicate  sufficiently  that  there  is  no 
financial  profit  in  the  enterprise. 

Correspondence  schools  are  a  great  improve- 
ment over  night  schools,  on  account  of  the  all-year 
study,  but  they  do  not  furnish  a  flesh  and  blood 
teacher  in  the  room  with  the  student.  The  man 
who  takes  a  correspondence  course  in  a  reputable 
school  has  well-prepared  lessons  regularly  mailed 
to  him  and  his  progress  depends  wholly  upon  him- 
self. If  he  requires  help  he  has  only  to  write  to 
receive  it.  The  courses,  however,  are  stiff  and  a 


98  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

marvellously  small  per  cent/of  those  who  start 
remain  to  finish. 

Before  the  days  of  evening  and  correspondence 
schools  many  men  studied  alone,  poring  over 
books,  in  the  course  of  many  years  acquiring 
enough  knowledge  of  the  essentials  of  engineering 
science  to  get  along  well.  It  is  a  solitary  way  and 
not  to  be  preferred  to  the  well-organized  methods 
by  class  or  through  correspondence.  Many,  how- 
ever, prefer  to  study  alone,  and  to  the  end  of  time 
there  will  be  those  who  would  rather  buy  a  book 
and  be  self -tutored  in  spite  of  the  easier  and  better 
ways.  For  the  men  who  insist  upon  being  self- 
tutored  the  following  courses  are  offered,  the 
writer  vouching  that  he  knows  a  number  who  have 
achieved  considerable  success  by  home  study. 

The  main  difficulty  in  studying  alone  lies  in 
knowing  just  what  books  to  buy,  many  expensive 
trials  being  made.  Few  men  know  how  to  advise 
a  young  fellow  in  the  purchase  of  books  for  self 
study,  and,  as  a  rule,  most  men  will  advise  books 
away  above  the  comprehension  of  the  inquirer, 
because  of  his  insufficient  grounding  in  the  rudi- 
ments. The  self -tutored  man  finds  plenty  of  books 
dealing  with  the  particular  specialty  in  which  he 
is  interested,  but  runs  afoul  of  the  mathematics 
plentifully  besprinkled  over  the  pages. 

The  first  thing  required  is  that  the  student  be 
expert  in  common  fractions,  decimal  fractions, 
ratio  and  proportion.  The  best  way  to  study  these 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  99 

subjects  is  to  resurrect  the  old  school  arithmetic 
and  go  through  the  sections  dealing  with  the  fore- 
going subjects.  The  higher  branches  of  mathe- 
matics will  be  of  no  practical  benefit  and  cannot 
be  properly  studied  by  a  student  not  fairly  expert 
in  ordinary  arithmetical  operations.  At  the 
present  writing  there  is  no  good  book  on  the  market 
written  for  the  instruction  of  self -tutored  men  in 
arithmetic.  There  are  some  excellent  British 
books  for  the  purpose,  but  the  American  student 
finds  them  exceedingly  hard  to  use  because  of  the 
absurd  monetary  system  and  system  of  weights 
and  measures  used  in  all  the  examples  for  prac- 
tice. The  examples  themselves  would  be  most 
excellent  practice  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  the 
American  student  feels  he  is  wasting  his  time  deal- 
ing with  subjects  for  which  he  will  never  have 
practical  use. 

During  the  present  year  (1911)  a  new  book 
has  appeared  entitled  "  Mathematics  for  the  Prac- 
tical Man,"  by  George  Howe,  M.E.  ($1.25),  which 
explains  in  simple  language  the  fundamentals 
of  Algebra,  Geometry,  Trigonometry,  Logarithms, 
Coordinate  Geometry  and  the  Calculus.  This,  it 
is  seen,  must  be  preceded  by  Arithmetic.  The 
author  gives  numerous  examples  to  be  worked  and 
his  manner  is  extremely  lucid.  No  better  book 
can  be  taken  up  by  the  self -tutored  man  who  wishes 
to  study  mathematics. 

One  book,  however,  is  not  enough,  for  the 


100  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

views  of  another  man  are  helpful,  the  teacher 
being  able  often  to  make  clear  things  not  plain 
from  a  study  of  the  text  book.  The  self -tutored 
man  has  no  teacher,  so  for  additional  explanation 
he  should  buy  " Algebra  Self  Taught,"  by  Paget 
Higgs  (60  cents).  This  is  rather  an  old  book,  con- 
taining no  examples  to  be  worked  out,  the  writer 
confining  himself  solely  to  the  philosophy  of 
mathematics.  Study  Howe  thoroughly,  working 
out  all  the  examples,  and  use  Higgs  for  reference 
and  collateral  reading.  When  Howe  is  completed, 
study  those  subjects  in  Higgs  which  Howe  does 
not  treat  so  fully. 

At  this  point  the  courses  separate.  Students 
studying  civil  engineering  or  architecture  should 
follow  with  " Elementary  Practical  Mathematics," 
by  M.  T.  Ormsby  ($2.25). 

Students  in  mechanical  engineering  should 
study  " Practical  Calculations  for  Engineers,"  by 
Larard  and  Grolding  ($2.00),  following  with  "A 
Primer  of  the  Calculus,"  by  E.  Sherman  Gould  (50 
cents). 

Students  in  electrical  engineering  should  study 
"An  Introduction  to  Practical  Mathematics,"  by 
R  M.  Saxelby  (60  cents),  and  then  take,  by  the 
same  author,  "A  Course  in  Practical  Mathe- 
matics" ($2.25). 

The  student  should  now  be  able  to  read  intelli- 
gently and  enjoy  any  mathematical  book  published. 
An  interesting  book  for  reference  and  home  study 


ENGINEEKING  AS   A   VOCATION  101 

after  one  has  completed  the  first  two  books  men- 
tioned, is  " Practical  Mathematics,"  by  Knott  & 
Mackay  ($2.00).  The  section  on  Strength  of 
Materials  should  be  studied  first  and  then  that  on 
Trigonometry.  The  other  subjects  may  be  studied 
as  the  student's  interest  in  the  matter  dictates. 

After  completing  the  books  above  mentioned  it 
often  happens  that  a  man  wishes  to  learn  more 
about  mathematics,  and  an  excellent  book  to  buy 
in  such  case  is  "  Higher  Mathematics  for  Students 
of  Chemistry  and  Physics,"  by  J.  W.  Mellor 
($5.00),  a  book  intended  for  self  instruction.  In 
studying  mathematics  no  real  power  is  gained  by 
reading  until  the  principles  are  understood.  To 
thoroughly  understand  the  subject  means  many 
hours  of  monotonous  drill  on  problems. 

It  is  always  assumed  that  the  self -tutored  man 
is  employed  in  some  capacity  in  the  office  of  an 
engineer  or  architect,  or  in  the  office  or  shops  of 
some  manufacturing  concern.  If  he  is  engaged 
in  mercantile  pursuits  he  should  not  try  to  get  into 
engineering  work  by  home  study  or  even  by  means 
of  the  correspondence  school.  He  will  meet  in  his 
books  a  great  many  statements  which  will  be  fully 
intelligible  only  to  men  in  the  business.  The 
writer  makes  a  special  plea  to  every  man  to  stick" 
to  his  trade  or  calling. 

After  completing  the  course  in  mathematics 
take  UD: 


102  ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION 

Elements  of  Mechanics,  Merriman  ($1.00). 

Strength  of  Materials,  Merriman  ($1.00). 
There  is  a  larger  book  by  the  same  author  having 
the  same  title,  but  the  small  one  is  best  adapted  for 
self -tutored  men. 

Materials  of  Machines,  Smith  ($1.00). 

Mechanics'  Problems,  Sanborn  ($2.00). 

Chemistry  and  Physics  of  Building  Materials, 
Munby  ($2.00). 

The  student  having  completed  the  above  list 
and  having  presumably  studied  each  book 
thoroughly,  is  in  a  position  where  he  is  free  to 
select  for  himself.  No  technical  book  should 
bother  him  because  of  the  mathematical  expres- 
sions or  references  to  certain  statements  in 
mechanics. 

Drawing  is  a  most  important  subject,  and  the 
most  complete  book  for  the  self-tutored  man  is 
"Mahan's  Industrial  Drawing,"  new  edition  by 
French  ($3.50). 

All  engineers,  and  also  architects,  will  require 
the  information  given  in: 

Elements  of  Graphic  Statics,  by  Cathcart  & 
Chaffee  ($3.50). 

Steam  Power  Plants,  by  Meyer  ($2.00). 

Power  and  Power  Transmission,  by  Kerr 
($2.00). 

Elements  of  Electrical  Engineering,  by  Kinz- 
brunner  ($2.00). 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  103 

For  general  information  on  subjects  of  great 
value  buy : 

A  Text  Book  on  Physics,  by  W.  Watson 
($5.00). 

Descriptive  General  Chemistry,  by  Tillman 
($3.00). 

The  man  wishing  to  study  surveying  should  be 
in  the  employ  of  a  surveyor,  or  of  a  civil  engineer 
doing  considerable  surveying,  and  study: 

The  Surveyor's  Hand  Book,  by  Taylor  ($3.00). 

A  Manual  of  Land  Surveying,  by  Hodgman 
($2.50). 

Hodgman  deals  with  the  laws  governing  the 
recovering  of  lost  corners  and  boundaries,  a  very 
important  part  of  a  surveyor's  work.  The  sur- 
veyor, however,  should  not  limit  himself  to  one  or 
two  books,  but  should  have  in  his  library  the  books 
of  Johnson  and  of  Gillespie.  Major  Eees  of  the 
Corps  of  Engineers  of  the  United  States  Army 
has  written  a  remarkably  good  book  on  Topo- 
graphical Surveying  and  Gribbles'  "  Preliminary 
Survey"  ($3.00)  is  full  of  methods  of  considerable 
value  and  interest. 

The  civil  engineering  student  should  read 
thoroughly : 

Civil  Engineering  as  Applied  in  Construction, 
by  Vernon-Harcourt  ($5.00). 

Engineering  Work  in  Towns  and  Cities,  by 
McCullough  ($3.00). 

Water  Supply,  by  Folwell  ($4.00). 


104  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

Sewerage,  by  Folwell  ($3.00). 

The  student  interested  specially  in  structural 
work  should  study : 

Bridge  and  Structural  Design,  by  Thomson 
($2.00). 

Typical  Steel  Railway  Bridges,  by  Thomson 
($2.00),  following  with: 

Steel  Mill  Buildings,  by  Ketchum  ($4.00). 

Walls,  Bins  and  Grain  Elevators,  by  Ketchum 
($4.00). 

Highway  Bridges,  by  Ketchum  ($4.00). 

The  student  of  mining  engineering  will  require 
all  the  preceding  mathematics,  physics,  chemistry, 
drawing  and  surveying  before  taking  up : 

A  Manual  of  Mining,  by  Ihlsing  &  Wilson 
($5.00). 

Prospecting  for  Gold  and  Silver,  by  Lakes 
($1.00). 

Prospecting,  Locating  and  Valuing  Mines,  by 
Stretch  ($2.50). 

Mining,  Mineralogical  and  Geological  Law,  by 
Shamel  ($5.00),  following  with  any  of  the  books 
already  mentioned,  which  he  believes  might  be 
helpful  to  him. 

It  is,  of  course,  understood  that  no  attempt  has 
been  made  here  to  give  a  list  even  approximately 
complete  of  the  best  books  on  any  particular  sub- 
ject. The  only  thing  the  writer  has  endeavored 
to  do  has  been  to  assist  the  reader  in  selecting 
good  first  books. 


ENGINEERING  AS   A   VOCATION 


105 


For  the  encouragement  of  men  who  missed 
earlier  opportunities  and  are  determined  to  sup- 
plement the  deficiencies  in  their  earlier  education, 
the  two  diagrams  here  presented  are  interesting 
studies. 

The  first  is  a  copy  of  a  diagram  frequently  used 
by  modern  contractors  for  the  purpose  of  rating 
their  foremen,  and  is  taken  from  a  job  of  which 
the  writer  had  charge.  The  horizontal  lines  rep- 


8       9       10       11      12       13      14       15      16 
Working  Days 

FIG.  1— Labor  Cost  Per  Unit  of  Product. 

resent  percentages  and  the  vertical  lines  represent 
days.  On  the  first  day  the  cost  of  the  product, 
assumed  here  to  be  a  yard  of  concrete,  is  taken  as 
a  maximum,  for  the  men  are  green  and  the  fore- 
man not  acquainted  with  his  crew,  it  being  the 
first  day  of  the  work.  Therefore  at  100  per  cent, 
the  start  is  made  for  cost  of  product.  The  crew 
was  small  and  the  cost  of  the  foreman  was  20  per 


106  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

cent,  of  the  total  expense  for  labor.  It  will  be 
noticed  that  actual  costs  are  not  given,  everything 
being  represented  in  percentages.  The  second  day 
the  crew  was  increased  in  size  and  the  percentage 
cost  of  foreman  was  consequently  reduced  and 
there  was  a  considerable  reduction  in  cost  of 
product.  With  each  succeeding  day  there  is  a 
reduction  in  percentage  cost  of  foreman,  with  a 
corresponding  increase  in  percentage  cost  of 
laborers,  the  cost  of  the  product  falling.  Finally, 
as  the  men  become  well  trained  and  accustomed  to 
the  work  and  the  foreman  also  gains  in  experience, 
the  cost  reaches  a  minimum  and  becomes  fairly 
constant.  An  ideal  diagram  would  show  all  the 
lines  smooth. 

This  diagram  is  made  each  day  from  the 
reports  of  the  timekeeper  and  cost  clerk  and 
plotted  for  the  information  of  the  supertintendent ; 
and  the  foremen  themselves.  The  percentage  cost 
of  the  foreman  is  expected  to  be  fairly  smooth 
after  getting  started,  but  the  cost  of  the  product 
varies,  owing  to  accidents,  or  to  a  neglect  by  the 
foreman  of  his  work.  When  the  superintendent 
reads  the  diagram  each  day  and  finds  the  cost  of 
the  product  rising,  he  can  find  the  cause  and 
quickly  stop  the  waste.  By  means  of  such  dia- 
grams all  modern  manufacturing  business  is  kept 
track  of,  contracting  being  merely  migratory 
manufacturing. 

If  all  workmen  are  well  trained  and  so  intelli- 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  107 

gent  that  little  guidance  is  required,  the  cost  of 
foremen  becomes  very  low.  All  workmen  are 
not  intelligent  and  the  most  intelligent  are  not 
always  the  most  industrious.  Intelligent  directors 
of  work  are,  therefore,  required,  and  they  are,  of 
course,  the  specially  trained  men.  Such  diagrams 
show  that  education  and  training  pay.  In  order 
to  direct  the  vast  numbers  of  poorly-trained  men 
there  must  be  numbers  of  better-trained  men,  and, 
as  technical  education  becomes  more  common  and 
the  general  intelligence  of  ordinary  laborers  rises, 
the  educated  men  must  be  far  better  educated  than 
the  average  if  they  are  to  receive  better  than  the 
average  pay. 

The  second  diagram  is  taken  from  the  Trans- 
actions of  the  American  Society  of  Mechanical 
Engineers,  Vol.  XXV,  1904.  This  diagram  was 
prepared  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  James  M. 
Dodge,  to  illustrate  his  Presidential  Address 
before  that  society  in  December,  1903.  Mr. 
Dodge  assumed  that  all  boys  have  a  potential 
value  of  $3000  at  the  age  of  16  years.  He  con- 
siders four  groups  of  men  working  in  the  mechanic 
arts— the  unskilled  labor  group,  the  shop-trained 
or  apprentice  group,  the  trade-school  group  and 
the  technical  school  group. 

Data  is  lacking  as  to  the  progress  of  the  unskilled 
labor  group  from  the  age  of  16  to  the  age  of  22, 
when  the  average  weekly  wage  is  $10.20.  This  con- 
tinues to  be  fairly  level  for  a  few  years  and  then, 


108 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 


of  course,  will  drop  as  the  laborer  becomes  weak- 
ened through  disease,  excessive  labor  or  age. 

The  apprentice  or  shop-trained  worker  has  a 


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6      17      18      19      20      21      22      23      24      25      26      27      28      29     30.      81      & 

Each  vertical  line  represents  one  year.in  age 
FIG.  2— The  Money  Value  of  Technical  Training. 

potential  value  of  $3000  at  the  age  of  16  when, 
he  enters  the  works  in  good  health  and  with  good 
habits.  Assuming  the  working  year  to  consist  of 
fifty  weeks,  he  receives  $3  per  week,  which  amounts 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  109 

to  5  per  cent,  interest  on  his  potential  value.  His 
accumulated  experience  increases  Ms  potential 
value,  until  at  the  age  of  24  it  reaches  $15,800  and 
he  draws  interest,  in  the  form  of  wages,  to  the 
amount  of  $15.80  per  week.  This  is  practically  his 
maximum,  and  is  practically  50  per  cent,  more 
than  that  of  the  unskilled  laborer.  The  writer 
objects  to  the  word  " unskilled"  when  applied  to 
ordinary  laborers,  for  the  word  does  not  fit.  His 
experience  has  shown  Mm  that  many  of  these  men 
are  wonderfully  skilled  in  the  work  with  which 
they  are  intrusted  and,  therefore,  wishes  to  make 
a  plea  to  substitute  the  word  " untrained,"  for  the 
other  more  objectionable  word. 

Mr.  Dodge  stated  experience  showed  that  5 
per  cent,  of  the  apprentice  group,  acquiring  the 
machinist  trade,  rise  above  the  line  made  by  Ms 
average  man ;  35  per  cent,  follow  the  line  closely ; 
during  the  period  of  training  about  20  per  cent, 
leave  of  their  own  accord,  and,  as  near  as  can  be 
ascertained,  go  to  other  shops  and  continue  in  the 
line  originally  selected ;  40  per  cent.,  however,  are 
found  unworthy  or  incompetent,  and  are  dis- 
missed, probably  never  rising  to  the  $15.80  line. 
On  this  point  he  remarks : 

"AppenticesMp  of  to-day  in  many  establish- 
ments does  not  make  the  man,  broadly  speaking, 
a  mechanic— in  a  majority  of  cases  he  is  a  specialist 
or  tool  hand,  and  not  comparable  with  the  old 
mechanic,  who  was  a  worker  in  metals,  had  some 


110  ENGINEEEING  AS  A  VOCATION 

practical  knowledge  of  steam  and  prime  movers, 
could  chip,  file,  work  on  lathe,  planer,  drill  press 
or  as  an  assembler,  and  was  competent  to  meet  the 
varied  and  unusual  conditions  found  in  general 
construction  and  repair  work." 

The  young  man  fortunate  enough  to  secure 
three  years'  training  at  a  good  trade-school  enters 
a  machine  shop  at  the  age  of  19  and  can  command 
$12  per  week,  equal  to  the  apprentice  at  21  years 
of  age.  His  three  years  in  school,  during  which 
time  he  was  earning  nothing,  have  proven  equal 
to  five  years  practical  shop  training,  but  in  reality 
the  difference  is  greater,  due  to  his  broader  train- 
ing in  theory  and  general  processes.  A  study  of 
the  line  of  this  group  shows  the  advantage  to  be 
permanent,  the  line  of  average  earning  being  about 
50  per  cent,  above  that  of  the  apprentice.  The 
dotted  extension  of  this  line  shows  a  possible 
increase  in  value,  while,  of  course,  a  few  excep- 
tional men  may  go  far  higher.  It  is  for  these  three 
groups  that  the  numerous  correspondence,  night 
and  vocational  schools  exist,  and  for  them  that  the 
home  study  courses  have  been  planned. 

The  young  man  who  prepares  himself  for 
entrance  into  a  high-grade  technical  school  at  the 
age  of  18  is  presumed  to  have  a  potential  value  of 
$4000  at  that  age,  although  he  is  in  the  non-earn- 
ing class  until  he  graduates  at  the  age  of  22,  when 
his  four  years'  course  in  the  technical  school 
ends.  His  entering  pay  in  the  works  puts 


ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION  111 

him  six  months  behind  the  apprentice  and 
two  and  one-half  years  behind  the  trade-school 
graduate.  In  six  months  the  technical  school  grad- 
uate overtakes  the  apprentice,  at  which  time  both 
are  earning  $14.00  per  week.  The  technical  school 
graduate  reaches  the  $15.80  line  nearly  one  year 
before  the  regular  apprentice.  In  three  years' 
time  the  technical  graduate  overtakes  the  trade- 
school  graduate.  The  line  then  becomes  more 
curved  until,  at  the  age  of  32,  just  ten  years  after 
graduation,  the  technical  school  graduate  has  a 
potential  value  of  $43,000  and  receives  the  5  per 
cent,  interest  on  this  valuation  in  the  form  of  a 
weekly  salary  of  $43.00,  at  which  age  the  pay  of 
the  trade-school  graduate  may  be  assumed  to  be 
about  $25  per  week.  The  curve  on  the  diagram 
ends  here,  but  the  writer  has  plotted  it  to  a  prob- 
able maximum  of  $45.00  per  week  fifteen  years 
after  graduation,  with  a  prospective  drop  after 
the  age  of  45.  The  compensation  of  the  average 
graduate  in  mechanical  engineering  is  thus  seen 
to  be  at  a  practical  maximum  fifteen  years  after 
graduation  of  about  $2250  per  year.  This  does 
not  seem  large,  but  it  is  well  known  that  some 
exceptional  men,  or  men  who  had  exceptional 
opportunities,  earn  far  more.  This,  likewise, 
applies  only  to  salaried  men. 


CHAPTER  V 

HOW  TO  HUNT  AND  HOLD  A  JOB 

THE  average  engineer  is  known  as  a  "job 
chaser."  Not  only  in  vacation  time  must  the  engi- 
neering student  hunt  jobs,  but  periodically  after 
graduation  the  same  experience  must  be  gone 
through.  The  majority  of  engineers  work  on 
salary,  the  terms  of  employment  are  uncertain  and 
in  slack  times  thousands  of  men  are  turned  adrift. 

Mr.  Onward  Bates,  President  of  the  American 
Society  of  Civil  Engineers  in  1907,  took  occasion  in 
his  presidential  address  to  classify  the  active  mem- 
bers of  the  society  with  a  view  to  studying  the  sub- 
ject of  engineering  employment.  He  assumed  that 
as  the  percentage  ran  in  the  society  so  it  would  run 
throughout  the  ranks  of  the  profession,  although 
the  American  Society  of  Civil  Engineers  repre- 
sents probably  less  than  one-fourth  the  total  num- 
ber in  the  country,  and  these  the  more  successful. 

In  percentages  the  employments  were  as  fol- 
lows: 

United  States  Government  Service . .     7.7  per  cent. 

State  and  Municipal  Service 12.7       " 

Eailway  Service  (all  kinds) 15.2       " 

Manufacturing,  Contracting,  etc. ...  17.6       " 

Consulting  Engineers 20 . 2       " 

Architects,  Teachers,  Editors,  Misc.. .     5.1 

Unclassified 21.5       " 

112 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  118 

The  men  marked  " Unclassified"  were  those 
who  gave  merely  an  address  for  the  annual  reg- 
ister, but  failed  to  give  the  nature  of  their  employ- 
ment. A  few  may  have  been  retired  and  the 
majority,  no  doubt,  belong  to  the  numerous  class 
that  is  seldom  blessed  with  a  job  lasting  a  whole 
year,  although  their  pay  may  be  good. 

By  " Consulting  Engineers"  is  meant  men  in 
private  practice,  and  Mr.  Bates  assumed  that  more 
than  three-fourths  of  all  engineers  are  dependent 
upon  salaries  and  less  than  one-fourth  receive  fees 
as  compensation  for  work.  Mr.  Bates  assumed 
that  what  was  true  of  members  would  be  equally 
true  of  associate  members  and  juniors,  but  the 
writer  believes,  as  careful  study  of  these  two  grades 
would  show,  the  percentage  of  men  dependent  upon 
salaries  to  be  nearer  90  per  cent,  for  the  entire 
membership,  for  we  do  not  know  how  many  of 
those  engaged  in  manufacturing,  contracting,  etc., 
were  on  salary  or  in  business  for  themselves. 

A  member  in  this  society  must  be  not  less  than 
30.  years  of  age,  qualified  to  design  as  well  as 
superintend  construction,  in  active  practice  not  less 
than  ten  years,  of  which  at  least  five  years  must 
have  been  in  responsible  charge  of  work.  Mem- 
bers, therefore,  may  be  assumed  as  being  fairly  well 
settled. 

An  associate  member  must  be  not  less  than  25 
years  of  age  and  engaged  in  active  engineering 
work  for  not  less  than  six  years,  of  which  one  year 


114  ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION 

has  been  in  responsible  charge  of  work.  An  asso- 
ciate member  is,  therefore,  one  who  is  being  made 
into  an  engineer,  and,  generally,  is  not  yet  settled. 

A  junior  must  be  not  less  than  18  years  of  age 
and  have  had  two  years'  practical  experience,  or  be 
a  graduate  of  an  engineering  school.  His  con- 
nection with  the  society  ceases  when  he  becomes 
32  years  of  age,  unless  sooner  transferred  to  a 
higher  grade. 

There  are  other  grades  of  membership  in  the 
society,  but  the  three  above  noted  constitute  the 
bulk  of  the  membership,  and  counting  them  as 
constituting  the  entire  membership,  the  per- 
centages are  as  follows : 

Members 49  per  cent. 

Associate  Members 37 

Juniors  14       ' l 

Practically  none  of  the  juniors  and  but  few  of 
the  associate  members  are  in  private  practice,  or 
in  business  for  themselves,  so,  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  man  who  is  seeking  employment  upon  engi- 
neering work,  it  may  be  assumed  that  nine  out  of 
ten  of  his  competitors  are  in  like  case  with  him, 
transient  employes. 

The  young  engineer  is  exceedingly  hurt  by  the 
fact  that  his  education  seems  to  be  so  lightly 
regarded  as  a  qualification  entitling  him  to  high 
pay  and  that  his  degree  is  laughed  at.  He  resents 
being  set  as  a  foreman,  timekeeper  or  setter  of  line 


ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION  115 

and  grade  stakes  over  illiterate  men  who  get  bet- 
ter pay.  Many  young  men  complain,  and  too  large 
a  number  become  chronic  kickers.  A  few  write 
letters  to  the  technical  papers,  which  letters  are 
discussed  until  the  editors  close  the  discussion  for 
the  time  being  as  leading  nowhere.  The  discus- 
sion ranges  from  grave  to  gay,  and  many  sea- 
soned veterans  take  a  heartless  pleasure  in  poking 
fun  at  the  "fresh  graduate."  These  discussions 
recur  at  fairly  regular  intervals  of  about  five  years 
and  elicit  nothing  new.  They  come  around  about 
as  regularly  as  the  discussion  of  standard  moot 
subjects  in  engineering  circles,  and,  indeed,  this 
problem  of  the  earnest  young  man,  with  his  first 
glimpse  at  actual  conditions,  may  be  said  to  now 
constitute  one  of  the  "moot"  subjects,  which  the 
regular  reader  of  engineering  periodicals  must 
expect  to  have  called  to  his  attention  half  a  dozen 
times  in  his  professional  life. 

The  fact  is  that  the  education  does  not  entitle 
the  young  chap  to  high  pay.  It  simply  gives  him 
an  opportunity  to  secure  employment,  and  places 
him  in  a  better  position  than  the  man  who  is  not 
so  well  educated.  It  gives  him  broader  opportuni- 
ties to  secure  employment  than  the  self -tutored 
man,  who  is,  of  necessity,  a  specialist  and,  there- 
xure,  limited  in  his  powers  to  move  about.  Many 
young  fellows  learn  a  great  deal  in  offices  about 
certain  kinds  of  work  in  which  their  employers  are 
specialists,  but  when  times  get  dull  and  they  are 


116  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

laid  off,  their  chances  for  employment  are  very  slim 
as  compared  with  the  college  graduate.  The 
diploma,  therefore,  is  merely  a  card  of  intro- 
duction, the  education  a  permit  to  remain  in  an 
office  and  give  proof  of  ability. 

Some  young  men  secure  permanent  positions 
early,  and  advance  slowly  and  steadily  until  they 
become  the  highest  officers  in  a  corporation,  for 
corporation  employment  is  most  common  as  an 
engineering  probability.  The  majority,  however, 
roam  for  many  years  from  one  piece  of  work  to 
another  before  settling  in  one  place,  and  it  is 
strange  how  few  become  expert  at  selling  their 
services.  Most  of  them  seek  a  new  place  with  a 
decided  feeling  of  resentment,  and  often  become 
sarcastic  when  discussing  prospective  employment. 

To  hunt  a  job  is  an  art  and  some  seasoned 
men  have  it  pat.  Much,  of  course,  depends  upon 
the  employers,  but  long  practice  makes  a  man  per- 
fect in  reading  character  and  approaching  pros- 
pective employers,  some  of  whom  ask  for  let- 
ters of  recommendation,  while  others  profess 
ability  to  "size  a  man  up."  It  is  well  to  secure  as 
many  letters  of  recommendation  as  possible  so  they 
will  be  ready  when  asked  for. 

An  engineer  makes  many  changes  and  should 
ask  for  a  letter  every  time  he  is  laid  off.  7^  ° 
employer  may  profess  a  willingness  to  answer  all 
inquiries  from  prospective  employers,  but  this  pro- 
fession of  willingness  on  his  part  should  not  pre- 


ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION  117 

vent  the  applicant  from  getting  the  letter.  When 
a  past  employe  changes  positions  frequently,  the 
old  employer  sometimes  experiences  annoyance 
when  called  upon  frequently  and  finally  ceases  to 
respond,  especially  when  some  years  may  have 
elapsed.  Men  also  die,  and  after  that  event  the 
experience  had  under  them  is  of  no  value  as  an 
asset,  there  being  nothing  to  support  the  claims  of 
the  applicant.  Some  engineers,  when  politely  put 
off  when  requesting  a  letter,  have  had  a  friend 
write  to  inquire  about  them,  this  friend  turning 
over  the  letter  of  recommendation  when  received, 
to  be  traced  so  that  blue  prints  may  be  made  of  it 
for  future  use. 

One  engineer,  with  whom  the  writer  is  very 
well  acquainted,  had  a  humiliating  experience, 
which  shows  how  valuable  it  is  to  have  docu- 
mentary evidence  when  required.  He  was  seeking 
a  position  on  a  certain  kind  of  work,  and,  in  con- 
versation with  the  prospective  employer  it  was 
found  that  they  had  many  mutual  acquaint- 
ances, among  them  an  engineer  in  a  distant 
part  of  the  country,  under  whom  this  engi- 
neer had  once  worked,  and  whom  he  regarded 
as  a  very  good  friend.  Without  his  knowl- 
edge this  engineer  was  written  to  and  asked 
about  the  applicant,  the  reply  being  that  he 
did  not  know  anyone  of  that  name.  The  pros- 
pective employer  sent  for  the  applicant,  and,  with- 
out a  word  of  comment,  laid  the  letter  before  him. 


118  ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION 

The  engineer  read  the  letter  over  slowly,  and  then 
from  his  pocket  drew  a  letter  seventeen  years  old, 
in  the  same  handwriting,  on  the  same  letterhead 
and  signed  by  the  same  man,  in  which  he  testified 
to  having  known  him  for  the  past  five  years  and 
praised  him  very  highly.  The  business  man  com- 
pared the  two  letters  carefully  and  had  a  good 
laugh.  He  had  them  photographed  side  by  side 
and  sent  the  photograph  to  the  engineer  in  the 
distant  city,  the  return  mail  bringing  a  letter  of 
most  abject  apology.  Seventeen  years  was  a  long 
time  for  the  memory  of  the  successful  man,  but  the 
man  who  had  never  had  a  chance  to  rest  his  feet, 
but  was  a  perpetual  "  job  chaser,"  suffered  keenly 
at  the  thought  of  an  old  friend  so  completely  for- 
getting him.  To  make  the  story  complete,  he  got 
the  job  he  was  seeking  and  it  lasted  a  full  year. 
Many  employers  advertise  as  follows  for  men : 


SUPEBINTENDENT — A  construction  company  taking  general 
contracts  for  reinforced  concrete  building  work,  desires  the 
services  of  a  first-class  superintendent.  Must  be  familiar 
with  all  branches  of  work  entering  into  the  construction  of 
factory,  warehouse,  office  and  public  buildings.  State  age, 
married  or  single,  salary  expected  and  when  open  for  engage- 
ment. Work  to  be  in  the  Metropolitan  district.  Address 
"G.  26,"'  Engineering  News,  New  York.  26-2t 

WANTED — At  once,  by  cement  company  doing  its  own  design- 
ing and  construction,  a  competent  all-round  draftsman,  fully 
able  to  check  and  handle  wide  variety  of  work  unaided. 
Experience  in  reinforced  concrete,  mill  buildings  and 
machinery  a  necessity.  Permanent  and  good  place  for  man 
who  knows  his  business.  In  answering,  state  salary  expected 
and  experience.  Address  "B.A.  26,"  Engineering  News, 
New  York.  26-2t 


ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION  119 

WANTED — Concrete  engineer,  technical  graduate,  of  five  years ' 
experience,  to  design  and  estimate  reinforced  concrete  struc- 
tures; state  age,  training,  experience  and  salary  acceptable 
for  immediate  employment.  Address  "H.  1,"  Engineering 
News,  New  York.  l-3t 

It  will  be  noticed  that  each  applicant  is  to 
state  the  salary  for  which  he  will  work,  and  he 
must  give  his  experience,  which,  of  course,  means 
sending  on  copies  of  letters  of  reference.  Firms 
advertising  in  this  way  never  reply  to  the  letters  of 
unsuccessful  applicants,  seemingly  taking  a  cruel 
delight  in  keeping  them  in  suspense,  for  even  the 
most  seasoned  "job  chaser"  is  somewhat  of  an 
optimist  and  hangs  on  for  a  long  time  in  the  hope 
that  his  letter  will  bring  him  success.  A  postal 
card  notification  that  he  was  unsuccessful  is  a 
decently  courteous  act  which  would  cost  little.  The 
applicant  never  knows  to  whom  he  sends  his 
application,  and,  as  the  appointment  is  made  solely 
from  the  written  record,  the  man  who  will  work 
for  the  least  money  is  generally  chosen.  Letters 
are  never  returned,  and  many  inexperienced  young 
men  have  lost  valuable  letters  which  they  foolishly 
sent  to  prospective  employers.  The  writer,  many 
years  ago,  commenced  making  tracings  on  cloth 
of  his  letters  of  reference  and  sending  blue  prints 
of  them  when  applying  for  a  position.  The 
prospective  employer  thus  saw  a  facsimile  of  the 
letter,  and  if  he  did  not  return  it,  only  the  cost  of 
the  blue  print  was  involved. 

A  letter  of  application  should  be  brief  and  to 


120  ENGINEERING  AS   A  VOCATION 

the  point.  A  badly  written,  misspelled  letter  is 
no  recommendation,  and  all  letters  should  read 
as  if  written  by  a  man  who  knows  what  he  wants 
and  how  to  ask  for  it.  The  writer  always  knew 
how  to  spell,  for  he  was  a  pupil  in  grammar 
schools  before  plain  sewing  and  such  fads  were 
introduced,  the  recreation  for  good  students  being 
a  spelling  bee,  and  the  punishment  for  bad  ones 
being  the  memorizing  of  many  pages  of  hard  words 
with  their  definitions.  Thanks  to  his  fondness  for 
reading,  he  was  never  at  a  loss  to  express  his 
meaning  when  he  wrote  a  letter,  so  two  of  the 
gravest  faults  of  young  graduates  namely,  poor 
spelling  and  ungrammatical  letters,  he  was  spared. 
He  was,  however,  a  most  abominable  penman, 
about  as  bad  as  the  majority  of  young  chaps  who 
do  not  intend  to  become  bookkeepers,  and  so  take 
no  pains  with  their  writing.  On  his  first  job  after 
leaving  school  he  received  a  letter  from  the  presi- 
dent of  the  company  expressing  pleasure  with  the 
letters  he  had  written  the  company,  but  ending  up 
with  the  request  that  he  use  a  typewriter  there- 
after or  cease  from  writing  to  firms  with  which 
the  company  did  business,  as  his  handwriting  was 
so  poor  that  it  looked  as  if  the  company  employed 
a  cheap  man.  It  was  true  they  were  having  their 
work  done  cheaply,  but  the  writer  flattered  himself 
that  it  was  not  a  cheap  man  who  was  doing  it.  The 
rebuke  was  kindly  meant  and  was  received  in  the 
proper  spirit,  a  copy  book  purchased  and  a  severe 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  121 

course  of  training  begun,  until  a  fairly  legible 
hand  was  the  result,  for  which  he  has  never  ceased 
to  feel  grateful  to  his  old  boss. 

A  personal  application  for  a  position  should 
not  end  with  a  visit.  Leave  a  card  containing 
name  and  address  and  a  statement  as  to  kind  of 
work  wanted,  together  with  references.  This  card 
should  be  the  regulation  3-  by  5-inch  card 
index  size,  and  all  information  should  be  let- 
tered *on  it  by  the  applicant,  as  a  means 
of  showing  a  sample  of  his  work.  This  in- 
volves considerable  labor,  of  course,  but  it 
pays,  for  such  a  card  is  filed  for  reference, 
while  smaller  cards  will  be  thrown  away  almost  as 
soon  as  the  applicant  closes  the  door  on  leaving 
the  office.  A  hektograph,  the  size  to  print  such 
cards,  does  not  cost  much,  and  is  a  good  invest- 
ment. A  few  days  after  calling  make  a  written 
application  and  follow  it  a  month  or  so  later  with 
another.  Few  applications  are  kept  more  than 
thirty  days,  for  a  man  is  supposed  to  have  obtained 
a  position  within  that  time. 

The  subject  matter  of  this  chapter  is  inspired 
by  the  desire  of  the  writer  to  assist  young  men  to 
sell  their  services  in  the  best  way.  He  had  many 
years'  experiences  as  a  "job  chaser,"  and  also  as 
an  employer  of  assistants,  so  can  give  instruction 
on  this  most  important  subject  as  a  result  of 
experience  on  both  sides  of  the  desk. 

Instead  of  resenting  the  fact  that  work  must 


122  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

be  hunted  for,  remember  the  traveling  salesman 
who  must  make  his  rounds  regularly  to  keep  cus- 
tomers of  his  house  in  line.  The  engineering  grad- 
uate " hunting  a  job"  is  a  salesman  engaged  in  sell- 
ing his  services.  If  too  conceited  in  appearance, 
or,  if  too  meek  and  modest  and  shrinking  he 
will  not  be  employed.  His  proper  attitude  should 
be  one  of  perfect  confidence,  unmarred  by  self 
consciousness;  he  should  also  be  neat  and  have 
an  appearance  of  frankness  and  businesslike  alert- 
ness. Some  day  the  weary  round  may  cease  and 
the  "job  chaser"  settle  down  to  steady  employ- 
ment, all  the  better  for  the  hard  training.  The 
period  of  "job  chasing"  depends  considerably 
upon  the  date  of  graduation,  for  the  graduates  in 
dull  years  may  be  wanderers  for  twenty  years  or 
more,  perhaps  for  life.  The  lucky  ones,  who  grad- 
uate in  flush  times,  may  not  go  through  a  period 
of  "job  chasing"  of  more  than  two  or  three  years' 
duration,  many  securing  positions  immediately 
upon  graduation,  which  are  in  the  line  of  pro- 
motion, and  may  finally  end  in  great  importance 
and  high  standing. 

To  hold  a  position  a  man  must  be  competent  to 
do  the  work  and  do  it  quietly  and  intelligently. 
Industry  is  a  great  blessing,  and  the  industrious 
man  has  much  to  be  thankful  for  in  the  possession 
of  such  a  great  blessing  as  the  habit  of  industry. 
The  diligent,  earnest  man  will  be  certain  to  suc- 
ceed if  he  loves  his  work,  can  keep  out  of  debt  and 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  123 

does  not  acquire  bad  habits.  The  world  greatly 
needs  men  who  can  do  detail  work  and  do  it  well, 
year  after  year,  not  bothering  about  the  place 
above,  but  ready  to  take  it  when  vacant,  concern- 
ing themselves  only  with  the  work  in  hand.  A 
great  fault  with  many  men  is  that  they  are  not 
steady,  nor  of  a  contented  disposition,  this  being 
responsible  for  the  promotion  of  the  steady  men, 
who  step  into  the  places  left  vacant  by  the  restless 
ones.  Restlessness  and  the  kicking  habit  have  made 
tramps  of  many  promising  men.  Nothing  except 
laziness,  combined  with  drunkenness,  will  so  cer- 
tainly kill  a  man's  chances  for  success  as  the 
acquirement  of  the  insidious  kicking  habit. 

Some  students  like  surveying  and  do  not  like 
drafting.  Surveying  and  field  work  can  be  done 
only  at  certain  times  of  the  year,  and  this  work 
is  not  particularly  well  paid.  Drafting  now  offers 
fairly  steady  employment,  and  while  it  does  not 
pay  well  in  the  lower  grades,  it  pays  better  than 
field  work  after  a  time,  and  the  chances  for  pro- 
motion are  better  in  the  office  than  in  the  field. 
The  man  who  is  good,  both  inside  and  outside,  is 
the  best,  and  the  inside  man  has  the  best  oppor- 
tunities for  meeting  the  responsible  heads  of  the 
company  for  which  he  is  working. 

No  better  advice  can  be  given  to  the  ambitious 
young  man  than  to  tell  him  to  be  as  good  a  drafts- 
man as  it  is  possible  to  be.  Forget  the  job  higher 
up  and  aim  to  fill  properly  the  job  in  hand.  Bead 


124  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

and  Study  all  the  time,  and  try  to  associate  with 
men  who  can  teach  something.  Avoid  the  kickers, 
to  be  found  in  every  organization,  as  the  plague. 
By  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  the  business  one  is 
always  ready  for  promotion.  Do  not  study  with 
a  view  to  getting  the  job  next  higher,  but  study 
because  of  a  love  for  the  work.  The  writer  has  had 
to  turn  away  many  fine  young  fellows  because  they 
were  not  well  drilled  in  the  details  of  the  small  work 
a  young  fellow  is  generally  put  at  after  graduation. 
Perhaps,  if  given  an  opportunity,  these  boys  might 
have  been  found  competent  to  be  chief  engineers, 
although  that  is  extremely  doubtful,  but  they  will 
get  no  opportunity  to  show  their  worth  in  such 
high  positions  until  they  demonstrate  successfully 
their  ability  to  fill  minor  positions  carrying  little 
responsibility.  "He  who  would  be  served  must 
first  learn  to  serve." 

The  following  from  the  commencement  address, 
June  1,  1910,  at  the  School  of  Mines  and  Metal- 
lurgy, Eolla,  Mo.,  by  Dr.  Charles  Sumner  Howe, 
President  of  Case  School  of  Applied  Science, 
Cleveland,  O.,  should  be  taken  to  heart  by  every 
engineering  student: 

The  successful  engineering  graduate  will  subscribe  for  the 
leading  technical  magazines  in  his  line  of  work,  and  he  will 
not  only  subscribe  for  them — he  will  read  them,  in  order  that 
he  may  keep  posted  in  regard  to  what  men  in  his  profession 
are  doing,  not  only  from  the  engineering  standpoint,  but  from 
the  manufacturing  standpoint  as  well.  Too  many  technical 
graduates  never  take  a  technical  journal. 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  125 

They  say  they  do  not  need  it  for  the  work  they  are  doing, 
which  is  probably  true,  and  if  they  continue  in  that  frame  of 
mind,  the  probability  is  they  will  never  need  to  take  the  jour- 
nals, because  they  will  not  rise  to  positions  of  high  enough 
responsibility  to  make  it  necessary.  The  successful  man — the 
man  who  is  willing  to  do  all  that  is  in  him  to  do — must  know 
what  other  men  are  doing,  and  he  must  put  his  knowledge  to 
use  in  the  work  which  he  does  from  day  to  day. 

In  hunting  and  holding  jobs  the  graduate  must 
remember  that  in  the  United  States  more  than  200 
schools  of  college  grade  give  engineering  courses, 
and  the  annual  crop  of  graduates  five  years  ago 
was  estimated  at  practically  4000.  There  are  many 
night  schools  and  private  institutions  giving  short 
courses  and  partial  courses.  There  are  several 
good  correspondence  schools  and  a  number  of 
inferior  ones.  The  surplus  graduates  of  schools  in 
every  country  in  the  world  come  to  the  United 
States,  for  it  is  imagined  that  in  a  comparatively 
new  country  there  should  be  good  chances  for 
engineers  to  succeed.  That  so  many  do  succeed 
while  so  many  American  graduates  fail,  is  a  sad 
commentary  on  the  American. 

Much  suffering  and  trouble  would  be  avoided 
if  more  of  the  graduates  would  look  upon  their 
course  as  one  in  applied  science  and  not  a  voca- 
tional subject,  as  the  modern  idea  of  education  in 
opposition  to  the  ancient  as  expressed  in 
the  now  useless  classical  course.  This  being 
true,  it  is  not  necessary  for  them  to  try  and 


126  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

practise  engineering.  Those  who  find  the  condi- 
tions of  employment  in  engineering  work  unsatis- 
factory can  go  into  any  other  business  for  which 
they  feel  adapted,  knowing  that  their  college 
course  has  been  a  very  practical  and  useful 
one.  Such  men  will  really  be  technically  educated 
business  men,  and  in  later  years  should  be  valuable 
members  of  boards  of  directors  and  officers  in 
large  corporations.  If  their  engineering  education 
does  nothing  more  than  lead  them  not  to  interfere 
with  the  work  done  by  engineers  in  the  employ  of 
their  companies,  it  will  serve  them  and  the  stock- 
holders well. 

The  graduate  should  lose  no  time  in  becoming  a 
member  in  one  or  several  of  the  leading  technical 
societies.  This  gives  him  standing  immediately, 
and  while  the  societies  do  very  little  in  the  way 
of  assisting  members  to  find  employment,  fix  rates 
of  pay,  or  establish  codes  of  ethics,  they  are  great 
forces  for  the  advancement  of  the  profession.  In 
fact,  the  present  solidarity  of  the  profession  is  due 
entirely  to  the  numerous  societies  in  existence 
which  provide  reference  libraries  and  places  for 
meeting  and  for  the  discussion  of  technical  sub- 
jects, foster  acquaintanceship  between  men  in  one 
line  of  work  and  issue  periodicals  devoted  to  the 
improvement  of  the  work  of  engineers. 

The  oldest  national  society  of  engineers  in 
America  is  the  American  Society  of  Civil  Engi- 


ENGINEERING   AS  A  VOCATION  127 

neers.  Membership  in  this  society  is  based  upon 
the  idea  that  all  engineers  are  civil  engineers. 

The  American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers 
seemingly  classifies  all  engineers  as  mechanical. 

The  American  Institute  of  Electrical  Engineers 
has  a  very  large  membership  and  is  rapidly  grow- 
ing. The  grade  of  member  calls  for  very  high 
attainments  and  the  associate  member  grade  is 
a  large  per  cent,  of  the  total. 

The  American  Institute  of  Mining  Engineers 
is  the  leading  society  for  the  promotion  of  mining 
engineering  work. 

All  the  foregoing  societies  have  headquarters 
in  New  York  City.  Many  members  are  members 
in  several  or  all  of  the  national  societies,  as  well  as 
holding  membership  in  local  city  and  state 
societies. 

The  Western  Society  of  Engineers  has  the 
same  requirements  for  membership  as  the  Amer- 
ican Society  of  Civil  Engineers,  and  has,  also,  a 
student  grade,  so  that  boys  in  technical  schools  may 
join,  receive  the  proceedings,  and,  finally,  when 
they  graduate,  go  into  the  society  as  juniors,  feel- 
ing, from  the  day  they  enter  school,  that  the  older 
men  in  the  profession  are  interested  in  them.  This 
society  has  headquarters  in  Chicago,  with  a  mem- 
bership pretty  evenly  divided  among  all  the 
branches  and  specialties  of  the  profession.  The 
large  reference  library  in  the  Monadnock  Block, 
in  the  heart  of  the  business  district,  is  a  center 


128  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

for  members  from  all  over  the  country,  who  make 
it  their  headquarters  while  in  Chicago. 

In  nearly  every  state  there  is  an  engineering 
society  holding  an  annual  meeting  for  the  presen- 
tation and  discussion  of  papers,  which  are  later 
printed.  In  the  larger  cities  there  are  local 
societies  and  clubs,  some  of  the  national  societies 
having  local  chapters  as  well. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  writer,  before  another 
generation,  there  will  be  but  one  national  society 
in  the  United  States,  namely,  the  American 
Society  of  Engineers,  divided  into  sections  about  as 
follows : 

Structural  and  Bridge  Engineering, 
Municipal  and  Sanitary  Engineering, 
Mechanical  Engineering, 
Electrical  Engineering, 

and  such  other  sections  as  may  have  enough 
specialists  to  warrant  the  organization.  This  is  the 
plan  on  which  the  Western  Society  of  Engineers 
is  conducted  and  it  works  very  well.  By  combining 
all  the  societies  in  this  manner  the  engineering  pro- 
fession will  be  compact  and  can  work  well  as  a  unit. 
The  largest  society  of  engineers  in  the  world  is 
the  German  Society  of  Engineers,  having 
numerous  special  sections.  The  present  arrange- 
ment in  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain, 
resembles  unpleasantly  the  division  of  medical  men 
into  schools. 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  129 

There  is  a  strong  influence  abroad  in  the  ranks 
of  the  profession,  markedly  so  among  the  younger 
and  foreign-born  engineers,  tending  toward 
organization  and  the  fixing  of  wage  scales, 
although  the  majority  of  engineers  feel  that  any- 
thing savoring  of  trades  unionism  tends  to  lower 
the  standing  of  the  profession.  An  increasingly 
large  element  is  seeking  some  protection  through 
legal  regulations  to  determine  the  status  of  sur- 
veyors and  engineers,  a  few  states  now  having 
license  laws.  Legal  regulation  of  land  surveying  is 
a  necessity  for  mathematical  requirements  are 
very  simple;  a  knowledge  of  law  and  practice 
being  most  essential. 

It  is  hard  to  admit,  but  it  is  true,  that  the  men 
who  pay  the  poorest  wages,  or  salaries,  to  young 
men  are  the  engineers  with  big  reputations,  whose 
charges  for  their  own  services  are  exceedingly 
high.  The  reason  is  that  young  men  flock  to  their 
offices,  seeking  to  shine  in  the  reflected  glory,  many 
even  offering  to  work  for  nothing  for  a  year  or 
two  in  order  to  say  they  had  this  experience ;  like 
Paul  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel.  The  writer 
feels  that  license  laws  will  not  help  the  general 
public  to  distinguish  between  good  and  poor  engi- 
neers, however  beneficial  they  may  be  in  the  case  of 
land  surveyors.  They  will  help  the  20  per 
cent,  in  private  practice,  but  will  be  of  no 
assistance  to  the  80  per  cent,  in  the  ranks  of  engi- 
neers who  work  on  salary,  nor  the  more  than  95 


130  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

per  cent,  on  salary  of  those  who  are  employed  on 
engineering  work,  but  have  not  yet  attained  the 
engineer  grade. 

The  present  tendency  is  to  give  better  pay  to 
men  of  experience  who  have  proven  their  ability, 
and  maintain  the  pay  of  men  in  the  lower  grades  at 
a  low  level,  this  being  caused  by  the  enormous  num- 
ber of  graduates  and  their  disposition  to  work  for 
low  pay  "to  gain  experience."  Protected  by  law 
against  competition  with  incompetent  men,  it  will 
be  comparatively  easy  after  a  while  to  use  this 
same  law  to  hold  men  down  and  keep  them  longer 
in  subordinate  positions.  Membership  in  a 
national  society  is  a  better  recommendation  than  a 
certificate  from  a  politically  appointed  state 
license  board. 


CHAPTER  VI 

DOES  IT  PAY  TO  STUDY  ENGINEERING? 

THE  drawbacks  to  any  vocation  are  best  under- 
stood by  the  men  engaged  in  it.  The  half -serious 
joke  of  the  lawyer  is  that  no  man  is  fitted  to  take 
up  the  study  of  law  until  he  has  acquired  a  taste 
for  sawdust  without  butter  as  a  steady  diet.  The 
physician  has  adopted  that  joke  as  one  peculiarly 
fitting  to  his  calling,  and  in  the  funny  columns  of 
a  college  paper  the  writer  saw  the  joke  recently 
credited  to  the  president  of  a  well-known  engineer- 
ing school.  Thus  the  story  which  was  credited 
first  to  Lord  Eldon,  in  1780,  may  really  have  been 
original  with  a  barrister  in  the  time  of  Nero,  just 
as  the  story  of  Stonewall  Jackson's  brigadier, 
who  built  a  bridge  before  the  engineers  "got  their 
picter  of  it  did,"  is  told  by  Julius  Caesar  about  his 
quartermaster  and  engineer. 

Competition  is  keen  in  every  line  of  endeavor. 
It  has  always  been  keen  and  will  always  be  keen. 
To  those  who  long  for  the  good  old  times  it  does 
no  harm  to  say  that  the  best  authorities  on 
economics  and  sociology  say  it  requires  fifty  thou- 
sand acres  of  land  to  support  one  hunting  savage. 
People  in  a  state  of  savagery  are  continually  on 
the  verge  of  starvation  and  grumble  at  every  new 
birth  in  the  tribe  because  of  the  increase  in  com- 

131 


132  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

petition.  The  males  being  hunters,  therefore  pro- 
ducers, the  birth  of  females  is  deplored.  Perhaps 
this  is  too  far  to  go  back  for  the  good  old  times. 

Before  the  era  of  the  manufacture  of  power, 
barely  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  the  lot 
of  the  educated  man  without  private  means  was 
pitiable.  All  manufacturing  was  done  by  hand, 
and  nearly  every  man  was  a  handy  man.  Wheat 
at  five  shillings  a  bushel  and  wages  one  shilling  a 
day,  less  than  one  hundred  years  ago  makes  pres- 
ent-day grumblers  at  high  prices  seem  like  queer 
people.  The  high  cost  of  living  has  been  a  never 
failing  topic  of  conversation  since  the  beginning 
of  speech.  In  those  good  old  days,  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago,  the  college-educated  man,  who 
had  worked  his  way  through  college,  and  failed  to 
secure  an  appointment  to  teach  or  preach,  was  lost. 
He  was  trained  with  gentlemen  and  with  culti- 
vated tastes  for  the  fine  things  of  life  without 
means  to  gratify  them,  it  is  small  wonder  that  he 
started  the  discussion  "Does  a  college  education 
pay?"  Business  was  not  done  then  on  the  scale 
it  is  done  to-day  and  openings  as  clerks  and 
accountants  were  few.  The  improvement  and 
and  development  of  the  steam  engine,  which  meant 
the  actual  manufacture  of  power  on  a  scale 
hitherto  undreamed  of  by  the  owners  of  water 
wheels,  put  the  educated  man  to  the  front.  Educa- 
tion became  a  fetich,  and  to-day  is  so  essential  as 
to  be  commonplace. 


ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION  133 

Fifty  thousand  acres  required  to  support  one 
savage  and  to-day  some  countries  support  a  popu- 
lation of  five  hundred  people  to  the  square  mile, 
almost  one  to  every  acre.  ^  It  is  the  engineer  who 
has  made  this  possible.  He  designs  and  makes 
machines  which  manufacture  power.  He  builds 
railways,  which  annihilate  distance  and  make  all 
men  neighbors,  so  that  the  gospel  is  being  carried 
to  all  the  lands  and  war  will  soon  be  a  rarity.  {  He 
puts  wires  everywhere  so  that  "We  are  as  close  to 
you  as  your  telephone"  has  become  an  advertising 
slogan.  He  tunnels  hills,  bridges  rivers,  paves 
streets,  brings  pure  water  into  houses  and  takes 
away  the  waste  matters  so  that  health  is  preserved, 
drains  swamps  and  irrigates  the  dry  hills  and 
plains,  carries  workmen  to  their  work  and  back  to 
their  homes  in  rapid  transit  cars,  so  that  the 
actual  working  time  has  been  cut  down  fully  25 
per  cent.,  and  the  average  earnings  have  been 
increased,  yet  the  cry  is  heard  that  the  good  old 
times  were  best  when  there  was  less  competition. 
The  good  old  times  when  the  most  wealthy  lived 
in  draughty  houses,  and  comfortable  chairs  looked 
like  sentry  boxes,  when  people  died  on  the  average 
ten  years  younger  than  the  average  to-day;  men 
and  women  were  old  at  50,  and  decrepit  at  60, 
whereas  to-day  men  of  60  look  as  if  in  their  prime. 
The  kings  in  the  good  old  days  had  no  better  food 
than  the  average  man  of  to-day,  and  baths  were 


134  ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION 

such  a  rarity  that  strong  perfumes  were  used  by 
all  who  could  afford  them. 

This  long  preamble  is  to  soften  the  statement 
that  the  average  engineer  is  a  kicker  and  is  sorry 
he  took  up  the  business.  Competition  is  keen.  The 
writer,  after  an  experience  of  twenty-five  years  in 
the  work,  sympathises  keenly  with  the  average  en- 
gineer and  wishes  conditions  were  better.  Yet  his 
eldest  son  will  shortly  graduate  as  a  civil  engineer. 
Not  because  engineering  is  necessarily  a  lucrative 
profession,  but  because  the  education  is  the  modern 
education,  one  for  service.  The  young  man  may 
practise  as  an  engineer  and  he  may  not,  but  what- 
ever happens  to  him  he  will  have  received  the  best 
education  it  is  possible  to  give  a  boy  at  the  present 
time,  in  the  sciences  that  broaden  a  man.  There 
is  something  also  in  the  old  belief  that  a  boy  has 
much  better  chances  for  success  if  he  follows  the 
business  of  his  father  than  if  he  starts  off  in  a 
new  field  for  himself,  where  the  experience 
gathered  by  those  who  preceded  him  is  not  avail- 
able for  his  guidance. 

A  large  number  of  young  men  enter  engineer- 
ing schools  every  year  firmly  convinced  that  engi- 
neering is  a  highly  paid  profession.  If  such  were 
not  their  honest  and  firm  belief  they  would  go  at 
something  else,  for  they  do  not  enter  the  profession 
with  the  spirit  that  prostrates  a  sculptor  at  the 
feet  of  a  statue,  or  which  leads  the  lover  to  cast  a 
rose  at  the  feet  of  the  mistress  of  his  heart.  Going 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  135 

into  the  work  with  the  expectation  of  great  gain 
and  without  the  true  spirit  which  makes  a  work- 
man fondle  and  polish  and  ornament  the  creation 
of  his  hands,  it  is  small  wonder  that  so  many 
engineering  graduates  speak  bitterly  of  their  call- 
ing. They  like  to  recall  the  words  of  Satan  in  the 
Book  of  Job,  "And  the  Lord  said  unto  Satan, 
Whence  comest  thou?"  And  Satan  answered  the 
Lord  and  said,  "From  going  to  and  fro  in  the  earth 
and  from  walking  up  and  down  in  it,"  the  modern 
engineer  being  called  "A  poor  devil,"  because  his 
career  upon  earth  so  closely  resembles  the  occupa- 
tion of  Satan. 

Thousands  of  young  fellows  whose  fathers  are 
doing  well  at  a  trade  go  to  college  to  study  engi- 
neering and  be  the  gentlemen  in  their  father's 
trade,  for  a  mechanical  engineer  is  only  a  scien- 
tifically educated  mechanician,,  the  civil  engineer  a 
scientifically  educated  master  builder,  the  electrical 
engineer  only  a  scientifically  educated  electrical 
artisan.  If  these  boys,  with  their  superior 
education,  would  buckle  down  to  work  with  their 
hands  beside  their  fathers,  or  in  their  fathers' 
employ,  there  would  be  a  big  increase  in  the  num- 
ber of  multi-millionaires  in  this  and  other 
countries.  As  a  rule,  the  education  gives  the  young 
men  an  idea  that  honest  toil  soils  hands,  whereas  a 
few  years  of  dirty  hands  directed  by  trained  brains 
means,  generally,  a  great  many  years  later  in  life, 


136  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

when  one  can  afford  the  daily  ministrations  of  a 
manicure. 

This  feeling  against  soiled  hands  is  causing  a 
great  many  disturbances  in  different  parts -of  the 
country,  if  it  is  true  that  men  can  turn  in  their 
graves.  Numbers  of  men  have  left  fortunes  to 
endow  trade  schools,  and,  the  money  getting  into 
the  hands  of  the  wrong  men,  the  result  has  been 
either  the  establishment  of  a  manual  training 
school,  which,  up  to  date,  has  not  proven  its  value, 
or  the  establishment  of  preparatory  schools  for 
engineering  colleges.  The  ideas  of  the  founders 
were  not  followed,  for  the  men  who  administered 
the  estates  knew  little  about  the  class  the  patron 
wished  to  benefit,  and  the  ambitious  "man,  whom 
they  selected  as  head  of  the  school,  felt  it 
beneath  his  dignity  to  be  the  head  of  a  mere  trade 
school.  A  proposed  new  institution  has  been 
described  to  the  writer  as  "A  superior  grade  of 
trade  school,"  and  the  writer,  thereupon,  ventured 
to  bet  that  an  engineering  course  will  be  established 
when  the  funds  are  available,  only  to  be  met  with 
a  surprised  "Why  not?"  Half  the  engineering 
schools  in  the  country  could  be  eliminated,  or 
turned  into  low-grade  trade  schools  with  immense 
benefit  to  the  country. 

Too  many  graduates  are  turned  out  of  engi- 
neering schools  who  are  absolutely  unfit  tem- 
peramentally for  the  work.  Their  awakening  is 
rude.  The  chances  for  success  in  engineering  are 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  137 

about  as  good  as  in  any  other  learned  profession, 
perhaps  slightly  better.  None  of  the  learned  pro- 
fessions offer  much  chance  to  secure  more  than  a 
comfortable  competence  at  best.  It  is  the  mistaken 
idea  that  engineering  is  a  combination  of  learned 
profession  and  remunerative  business  that  crowds 
the  ranks  with  the  unfit,  makes  conditions  of 
employment  irksome  and  keeps  down  pay. 

The  chances  for  continuous  employment  are 
very  slim.  Many  engineers  never  acquire  a  com- 
petency ;  the  periods  of  non-employment  often  last 
long  enough  to  get  a  man  in  debt.  Once  in  debt 
his  case  is  almost  hopeless.  He  works  for  a 
salary  when  he  works  at  all,  and  there  is  small 
opportunity  to  recoup  losses,  for  the  salaries  are 
just  large  enough  to  live  on.  This  recurrence  of 
idle  periods  when  the  treasury  is  empty  is  the 
cause  of  most  of  the  poverty  and  distress  in  the 
world.  In  this  the  educated  man  has  no  advantage 
over  the  laboring  man.  He  is,  in  fact,  worse  off 
than  the  laborer,  for  he  cannot  descend  to  the  doing 
of  manual  work  without  losing  caste  and  being 
looked  upon  by  his  relatives  as  a  failure.  Men 
hold  on,  year  after  year,  at  first  because  to  try  to 
secure  other  work  would  be  deemed  a  tacit  con- 
fession of  failure,  and  this  would  be  damning,  as 
in  the  popular  mind  engineering  is  the  best  paid 
business  in  the  world ;  finally,  the  disheartened  man 
is  compelled  to  hang  to  the  one  thing  he  under- 
stands best,  because  he  reaches  an  age  when  a  man 


138  ENGINEERING   AS   A   VOCATION 

finds  it  practically  impossible  to  make  a  start  with- 
out capital  in  some  other  line  of  work.  If  he  were 
a  merchant,  whose  sole  business  is  to  buy  and  sell, 
it  would  make  little  difference  what  he  should 
finally  buy  and  sell,  but  to  leave  a  profession 
means  to  go  into  some  line  of  work  entirely 
foreign  to  all  previous  experience,  and  the  throw- 
ing away  of  all  the  experience  thus  far  gained. 

After  a  number  of  years  prospective  employers 
begin  to  turn  a  man  down  because  he  has  worked 
in  too  many  places.  It  is  a  source  of  keen  humilia- 
tion to  many  high-minded  men  that  they  have 
changed  often  and  have  not  suceeded  in  getting  a 
permanent  footing,  but  they  are  in  this  predica- 
ment through  no  fault  of  their  own.  The  engineer- 
ing graduate,  who  is  turned  loose  in  the  world  dur- 
ing a  period  of  business  depression,  such  as  is 
experienced  in  the  United  States  at  intervals  of 
about  ten  years,  seldom,  if  ever,  gets  solidly  on 
his  feet.  He  is  a  wanderer  from  job  to  job  to 
the  end  of  the  chapter,  be  he  the  most  capable  man 
in  the  world  and  a  worshipper  of  his  calling.  He 
further  experiences  poignant  suffering  in  seeing 
class  after  class  of  young  men  graduate  years 
later  than  he  and  step  into  good  positions  just 
because  they  happened  to  graduate  in  years  when 
men  were  in  demand  and  young  fellows  start  at 
almost  any  pay  they  can  get.  This  cruel  condition 
is  understood  by  some  employers,  but  the  majority 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  139 

give  it  no  thought  and  are  disposed  to  blame  a  man 
who  changes  positions  often. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  artificial 
demand,  which  leads  to  many  newspaper  stories 
being  written  about  the  great  demand  for  engineers 
and  the  short  supply.  There  is  another  hateful 
thing  which  also  causes  a  great  deal  of  suffering, 
and  is  most  unjust,  namely,  the  fact  that  many 
head  draftsmen  and  superintendents  own  stock  in 
employment  agencies  which  charge  a  fee  for  secur- 
ing men  positions.  The  writer  has  known  of 
instances  where  forty  draftsmen  have  been  laid 
off  for  lack  of  work  to  keep  them  busy  and  of  a 
hurry  call  being  sent  to  an  employment  agency  for 
men  in  less  than  a  week.  This  happens  so  fre- 
quently that  it  is  a  strange  thing  that  the  directors 
do  not  look  into  the  matter  and  investigate  such 
wholesale  changes.  When  a  draftsman  enters  the 
office  of  an  engineer  and  asks  for  work,  saying 
that  he  had  been  just  laid  off  by  a  certain  com- 
pany, and  the  engineer  knows  that  company  is  at 
that  very  moment  looking  for  draftsmen,  it  takes 
him  but  a  few  moments  to  decide  that  the  appli- 
cant before  him  must  have  been  below  the 
standard  or  he  would  have  been  retained.  These 
agencies  charge  10  per  cent,  of  the  first  month's 
salary  for  a  position  lasting  less  than  six  months  ; 
25  per  cent,  of  the  first  month's  salary  for  a  posi- 
tion paying  less  than  $75  per  month  and  lasting 


140  ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION 

more  than  six  months;  40  per  cent,  of  the  first 
month's  salary  for  a  position  paying  more  than 
$75  and  less  than  $175,  and  lasting  more  than 
six  months;  60  per  cent,  of  the  first  month's 
salary  for  a  position  paying  more  than  $175  and 
lasting  more  than  six  months. 

The  charge  is  not  made  that  much  of  the  seem- 
ingly unbusinesslike  reduction  in  forces  is  made 
because  some  one  is  interested  in  a  nearby  employ- 
ment agency.  The  statement  is  merely  made  that 
this  might  be  a  reasonable  explanation  since  one 
man  told  the  writer  that  he  lost  a  position  when 
the  manager  of  his  company  found  out  he  got  a 
10  per  cent,  commission  on  all  business  he  sent  to 
a  certain  agency,  besides  owning  $500  worth  of 
stock  in  the  agency,  on  which  his  dividends  were 
about  8  per  cent,  per  annum.  The  writer  had  fre- 
quent dealings  with  a  certain  agency  some  years 
ago,  and  this  agency  he  always  believed,  and 
still  believes,  did  everything  in  a  square  way. 
Nevertheless,  he  declined  to  purchase  any  of  the 
stock  when  it  was  offered  him,  because  he  did  not 
like  the  idea  of  making  money  out  of  his  unfor- 
tunate brothers  in  the  profession. 

There  are  reputable  agencies,  and  it  is  for- 
tunate there  are,  for  otherwise  many  men  would 
have  an  exceedingly  hard  time  getting  in  touch 
with  vacancies  they  are  capable  of  filling.  This 
question  of  finding  employment  for  men  is  one  that 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  141 

should  be  taken  up  by  all  the  engineering  societies. 
An  employment  bureau  could  be  established  in 
every  large  city,  supported  by  members  of  the 
different  societies,  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
securing  transient  employment  for  members.  A 
small  fee,  say  of  5  per  cent,  of  the  first  month's 
salary  could  be  charged  until  the  actual  cost  of 
operating  the  agency  is  discovered,  when  the 
charges  can  be  made  to  cover  the  actual  cost  only. 
In  this  way  all  the  societies  can  secure  new  mem- 
bers and  will  be  doing  a  needed  work.  If  this  work 
is  properly  done  there  will  be  heard  less  of  the 
present  agitation  for  license  laws  and  the  forma- 
tion of  organizations  with  trades  union  ideas  and 
sentiments. 

Some  assistants  in  the  office  of  Messrs.  D.  H. 
Burnham  &  Co.,  in  Chicago,  organized  a  few  years 
ago  the  American  Technical  Association,  which 
has  nicely  furnished  offices  in  that  city.  This  is 
a  voluntary  association  of  engineer  assistants  and 
draftsmen,  organized  as  a  mutual  benefit  associa- 
tion to  keep  the  members  employed.  The  dues  are 
small  and  no  fee  is  charged  for  securing  a  posi- 
tion. All  that  is  asked  of  a  man  after  he  goes 
to  work  is  that  he  keep  up  his  dues  so  other 
men  will  be  helped.  The  membership  is  grow- 
ing rapidly  and  such  an  organization  deserves 
to  be  encouraged.  The  way  to  help  it  is  to 
send  to  the  secretary  when  assistants  are  wanted, 
and  finally  the  society  will  be  able  to  keep  a  secre- 


142  ENGINEEKING  AS  A   VOCATION 

tary  constantly  employed  on  salary  to  do  this 
altruistic  work.  Every  large  city  should  have  a 
branch  of  this  association,  unless  the  large  societies 
will  unbend  from  their  dignified  position  and  take 
cognizance  of  the  member  who  is  never  able  to  get 
a  footing  on  the  shifting  sands. 

Occasionally  a  man  who  has  been  on  the  rack 
for  years  does  get  a  position  where  he  apparently 
has  a  chance  to  make  good.  The  first  thing  that 
happens  is  very  often  the  starting  up  of  what  is 
commonly  termed  "the  anvil  chorus,"  by  men 
longer  in  the  employ  of  the  company,  who  feel 
aggrieved  at  a  newcomer  being  put  over  them  and 
at  a  larger  salary.  With  the  objectors  the  ques- 
tion of  competency  is  second  to  that  of  long 
service.  The  newcomer,  interloper,  according  to 
the  older  employes,  is  generally  a  man  of  very 
broad  experience,  and  has  an  intimate  knowledge 
of  systematic  methods  employed  in  many  estab- 
lishments. Generally  he  has  worked  out  methods 
of  his  own  for  doing  work  expeditiously  and 
economically.  All  attempts  on  his  part  to  intro- 
duce innovations  are  opposed,  not  always  openly, 
until  he  either  resigns,  or  finally  settles  into  the 
grooves  and  travels  with  the  rest  of  the  crowd, 
much  to  the  disgust  of  the  management,  for 
his  selection  was  due  to  a  desire  to  have  new  life 
put  into  the  work.  His  resignation  is  then  either 
asked  for,  or  his  position  from  that  time  becomes 
a  purely  political  one,  held  by  finesse  and  not 


ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION  143 

gauged  by  material  results.  Few  corporations 
know  how  much  the  fetich  of  system  and  red  tape 
is  costing  them,  but  as  young  men  go  in  at  the 
bottom  and  gradually  grow  into  conservative  ways, 
it  is  seldom  that  an  older  man  has  an  opportunity 
to  break  in  and  become  permanently  attached  to  a 
payroll,  for  he  is  a  disturbing  element.  The  pay 
of  the  middle-aged  engineer  is  good  when  he  is 
working,  if  he  demands  good  pay  and  can  show 
results.  He  works  on  the  unit  system,  the  system 
that  implies  good  organization  with  a  minimum 
of  machinery  that  wears  and  induces  lost  motion. 

It  happens  often  to  old  experienced  engineers 
that  a  firm  will  employ  them  on  contract  for  a 
year  and  put  them  in  sole  charge  of  the  construc- 
tion or  designing  department,  with  instructions  to 
systematize  it  and  effect  as  much  saving  as  pos- 
sible. Their  long  and  varied  training  having  made 
them  good  organizers  they  go  to  work  joyfully  and 
finally  get  matters  in  such  shape  that  they  have 
an  opportunity  to  take  it  easy.  The  organization  is 
put  in  such  good  order  that  it  runs  like  well-made 
and  well-lubricated  machinery.  The  reward  of  the 
engineer  is  to  be  "laid  off"  when  the  contract  time 
is  up,  the  young  chap,  who  acted  as  principal 
assistant  during  the  change,  getting  the  position 
thus  left  vacant  at  half,  or  sometimes  less  than 
half  the  salary.  The  irony  of  the  whole  deal  is 
often  revealed  when  it  is  discovered  that  the  young 
fellow  knew  months  before  that  the  change  would 


144  ENGINEEKING  AS  A  VOCATION 

be  made,  and  was  told  to  prepare  himself  to  take 
charge  of  the  work,  but  say  nothing  to  the  older 
man  about  it.  This  is  not  uncommon. 

When  dull  times  come  in  all  engineering  estab- 
lishments, the  highest  salaried  men  are  laid  off 
first,  a  recent  graduate  being  advanced  to  the  title 
at  half  the  pay.  His  turn  comes  with  the  next 
panic  period  in  business,  for  the  schools  are  busy 
turning  out  graduates  "to  supply,  if  possible,  the 
demand  that  exists  for  the  graduates  of  this  well- 
know  institution,'7  to  quote  from  certain  printed 
matter.  Were  such  changes  not  made  there  would 
be  no  promotion  possible  for  young  men.  Even  in 
the  army  and  navy,  where  the  officers  have  life 
jobs,  it  is  necessary  to  have  retiring  boards  work- 
ing, in  order  that  there  will  be  a  movement  toward 
the  top  strong  enough  to  prevent  discouraged  men 
from  leaving  the  service.  The  retired  officers, 
however,  go  on  half  pay,  while  the  thrown-off 
engineer  has  to  hustle  for  a  job,  with  the  stigma 
of  dismissal  attached  to  him. 

Many  companies  manufacturing  engineering 
specialties  will  secure  an  experienced  man  of  wide 
acquaintance  to  push  their  goods  on  commission. 
Thinking  that  here,  at  last,  is  an  opportunity  to 
quit  salaried  work  and  get  into  business  for  him- 
self, the  man  pushes  the  goods  hard,  sometimes 
almost  verging  on  the  unprofessional  in  using  the 
meetings  of  his  society  for  places  to  introduce  dis- 
cussions that  will  bring  out  the  name  of  his  com- 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  145 

pany,  and  finally  opens  the  market.  The  sales 
then  mount  up  in  volume  and  he  handles  most  of 
the  business  from  an  office  by  correspondence.  It 
is  then  that  the  company  begins  to  grumble  about 
the  amount  of  his  commissions,  and  when  the  year 
ends  he  is  displaced  by  a  young  engineering  grad- 
uate working  on  a  salary. 

Engineers  in  private  practice  find  that  the 
character  of  their  work  changes  from  year  to  year. 
First  there  is  a  railway  boom  in  their  vicinity  and 
they  are  railway  specialists;  then  new  towns  are 
developed  and  they  are  highway  specialists.  When 
the  section  settles  up  more  they  are  in  demand  for 
the  purpose  of  building  water  works  systems. 
Then  follows  sewerage  and  finally  water  purifica- 
tion and  sewage  purification.  To-day  most  of  the 
engineers  in  private  practice  are  busy  on  the 
valuation  of  public  utilities.  No  engineer  in  pri- 
vate practice  can  tell  in  January  just  what  his 
principal  work  will  be  during  the  coming  twelve 
months.  Since  this  is  the  case  with  men  able 
to  support  an  establishment,  and  with  the  means, 
one  would  suppose,  to  keep  to  one  line  of  work, 
how  much  more  apt  is  the  wanderer  working 
always  on  salary,  to  change  the  nature  of  his 
employment  with  nearly  every  new  job.  When  one 
considers  this  seriously,  the  teaching  of  narrow 
specialties  in  schools  is  seen  to  be  absurd,  except 
in  schools  situated  near  centers  where  the  specially 
trained  men  can  be  absorbed  as  fast  as  produced. 


146  ENGINEEBING  AS  A  VOCATION 

It  is  not  always,  in  fact  it  is  seldom,  the  specially 
trained  young  man  who  gets  the  high  pay,  but  the 
man  of  broad  experience,  who  has  acquired  the 
ability  to  absorb  quickly  the  essentials,  which  will 
enable  him  to  perform  properly  the  duties  per- 
taining to  the  position  in  which  he  finds  himself. 

One  engineer  in  seeking  a  position  showed 
excellent  references  from  many  employers,  all  men 
of  high  standing.  The  gentleman  to  whom  he  was 
applying  for  employment  said: 

"I  think  your  letters  are  all  right  and  the 
parties  to  whom  you  referred  me  have  answered 
promptly  and  favorably,  but  all  the  same  I  think 
there  must  be  a  screw  loose  somewhere.  It  seems 
to  me  a  man  of  the  ability  with  which  you  are 
credited  should  be  settled.  In  fact,  the  letters  are 
too  good.  You  have  never  held  a  job  more  than 
eight  or  ten  months,  and  I  want  a  steady  man.  We 
have  decided  to  get  a  young  man,  who  will  work  for 
less  pay  and  who  is  up  in  the  very  latest  methods, 
and  who  has  not  been  out  long  enough  to  have 
acquired  the  tramp  habit  that  so  many  of  you  older 
men  seem  to  have  acquired." 

"I  guess  it  is  all  up  with  me  then,"  said  the 
engineer.  "How  long  will  this  job  of  yours  last, 
anyhow?" 

"O,  about  seven  or  eight  months,  I  guess.  If 
we  can  get  the  right  kind  of  a  pusher  it  should 
be  done  sooner." 

"What  will  you  put  the  engineer  at  then?" 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  147 

"Why  nothing.  This  is  the  only  time  we  have 
ever  employed  an  engineer,  and  we  will  have  noth- 
ing more  for  him  after  the  building  is  completed. ' ' 

"Well,  then,"  said  the  engineer.  "Has  it  not 
struck  you  that  every  one  of  my  past  employers 
was  in  your  case  ?  I  have  made  an  enviable  reputa- 
tion in  this  particular  line  of  work  and  can  save 
you  money  even  at  the  salary  you  say  is  high.  I 
have  been  always  employed  as  a  specialist.  A  man 
hires  me  and  lets  me  go  when  the  work  is  done. 
He  is  my  friend  from  that  time  on  and  always 
willing  to  recommend  me.  You  need  have  no  fear 
about  lack  of  steadiness  on  my  part,  because  my 
jobs  are  short  time  jobs.  I  am  ready  at  any  time 
to  accept  a  good  paying,  permanent  position.  You 
employ  a  lawyer  because  of  his  experience,  but  his 
having  worked  for  many  people  is  a  recommenda- 
tion, not  a  drawback.  The  difference  between 
the  engineer  and  the  lawyer  is  that  the  engineer 
works  on  a  salary  for  one  man  at  a  time,  and 
the  lawyer  works  for  fees  for  many  people  at  one 
time.  You  can,  if  you  wish,  employ  some  engineer 
who  is  in  private  practice  to  do  your  work  on  a  fee 
and  keep  a  resident  engineer  on  the  job,  but  you 
find  it  comes  cheaper  to  employ  a  man  on  a  salary. 
You  should  consider  that  the  more  experience  a 
man  has  had  the  more  money  he  should  be  able 
to  save  you.  The  physician  and  the  lawyer  stay 
in  one  place  and  work  for  small  fees,  but  the  engi- 
neer, having  to  give  his  whole  time  on  salary  to 


148  ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION 

his  employer,  must  work  in  many  places  and  never 
lias  a  home.  He  is  continually  making  new 
acquaintances  and  being  forgotten  by  the  old." 

The  manufacturer  saw  the  point  and  the  engi- 
neer was  employed,  carrying  the  work  through  to 
a  successful  end  and  adding  another  good  name  to 
his  list  of  references.  He  is  not  a  perfectly  happy 
and  contented  man,  however,  for  he  long  ago 
passed  the  age  limit  for  permanent  positions  and 
must  continue  to  the  end  of  the  chapter  a  "job 
chaser." 

Private  practitioners  have  been  referred  to  a 
number  of  times.  Men  employing  engineers 
demand  a  showing  of  experience,  so  that  a  man 
cannot  go  into  private  practice  as  a  consulting 
engineer  until  he  has  had  considerable  experience. 
Some  young  fellows  at  school  announce  their 
intention  of  opening  offices  as  consulting  engineers 
after  graduation.  Some  try  it  for  awhile,  but 
they  soon  see  the  comedy  side  of  it  and  the  offices 
are  closed;  generally  closed  automatically  by  the 
exhaustion  of  the  pocketbook.  When  a  man  goes 
into  private  practice  too  early  in  life  his  work 
is  apt  to  be  small  in  character,  so  that  he  gains 
no  really  valuable  experience  in  the  doing  of 
it.  By  dint  of  hanging  on  he  may  finally  secure 
enough  small  work  to  eke  out  a  living,  but  the 
pay  is  small  and  the  work  of  a  petty  character. 
Most  of  it  is  surveying.  When  the  man  of  middle 
age  and  ripe  experience  goes  into  private  practice 


ENGINEEEING   AS  A   VOCATION  149 

as  a  consulting  engineer  he  has  a  wide  acquaint- 
ance with  many  who  can  send  friends  to  him,  and 
it  is  not  very  difficult  to  get  a  start.  To  start,  how- 
ever, requires  an  office  in  a  good  location,  with  an 
assistant  or  two,  and  the  expenditure  of  consider- 
able money  in  promotion  work.  In  a  city  like 
Chicago  it  requires  a  capital  of  at  least  ten  thou- 
sand dollars,  and  an  experience  of  not  less  than 
fifteen  or  twenty  years,  while  in  New  York  the 
cost  will  be  double.  The  beginner  may  be  very 
lucky  in  the  first  year  and  secure  some  clients  of 
a  good  kind  so  that  he  will  be  fairly  on  his  feet 
with  the  expenditure  of  less  than  two  thousand 
dollars,  but  such  happenings  are  like  many  strange 
things  that  Fate  deals  out  to  men ;  they  go  by  the 
generic  term  of  "Chance."  There  are  losses  in 
all  lines  of  business,  and  the  private  practitioner 
in  engineering  is  no  exception  to  the  general  run 
of  business  men.  That  many  fail  in  private  prac- 
tice is  due  to  lack  of  capital,  the  item  which  causes 
so  many  failures  in  all  business  lines.  There 
would  be  more  successful  men  in  private  practice 
if  the  expenses  of  conducting  the  business  and 
legitimate  promotion  work  were  not  so  heavy.  The 
young  attorney  can  go  into  private  practice 
immediately  upon  graduation  and  do  well,  for  he 
needs  only  to  consult  books  to  give  opinions,  and 
is  seldom  away  from  his  office  more  than  a  few 
hours  at  a  time.  The  young  physician  may  open 
an  office  immediately  after  graduation  and  grad- 


150  ENGINEEKING  AS  A   VOCATION 

ually  work  up  a  pretty  fair  practice,  his  clients 
knowing  always  what  his  office  hours  are,  and  gen- 
erally preferring  a  young  man,  for  they  consider 
him  to  be  well  up  in  the  latest  methods  in  surgery 
and  medicine. 

The  engineer,  on  the  contrary,  cannot  hope  to 
succeed  in  private  practice  until  he  has  managed 
to  secure  a  broad  experience  and  he  must  have  his 
affairs  so  arranged  that  evidences  of  his  experience 
can  be  produced  upon  demand  to  satisfy  pro- 
spective clients.  This  then  postpones  his  entrance 
into  private  work  until  near,  or  past  middle  age. 
His  work  is  also  of  such  a  nature  that  it  takes  him, 
or  his  assistants,  away  from  his  office,  and  often 
from  the  city  in  which  his  office  is  located,  for 
months  at  a  time.  He  must,  therefore,  possess 
enough  capital  to  be  in  a  position  to  employ  men 
on  salary  to  go  out  and  do  the  detail  work  and 
small  work  which  cheaper  men  than  himself  can 
do,  in  order  that  he  may  be  available  for  consulta- 
tion and  advice  when  needed  by  his  clients.  Until 
the  engineer  has  enough  capital  to  run  his  business 
in  this  manner  he  is  no  better  than  the  wandering 
"  job  chaser,"  plus  the  expense  of  office  rent,  adver- 
tising and  general  promotion.  A  great  many  engi- 
neers open  offices  in  a  small  way,  going  out  and 
securing  work  and  bringing  it  back  to  the  office  to 
attend  to  personally.  Such  men  seldom  get  impor- 
tant work  and  life  is  always  a  struggle.  The  engi- 
neer in  private  practice  must  be  a  business  man 


ENGINEERING   AS  A  VOCATION  151 

and  learn  to  employ  competent  assistants  on  work 
they  can  do  as  well  as  he,  his  part  being  to  secure 
the  work,  guide  it  when  it  has  reached  the  point 
where  his  judgement  is  worth  many  dollars  to  his 
client  and  act  in  emergencies.  The  consulting 
engineer  satisfies  the  definition  of  Wellington— he 
can  do  well  with  one  dollar  what  any  bungler  can 
do  after  a  fashion  with  the  expenditure  of  two 
dollars.  The  young  man  with  insufficient  experi- 
ence is  more  or  less  of  a  bungler  and  the  "  prac- 
tical" man  is  generally  a  bungler. 

There  is  no  rule  to  govern  pay.  The  engineer 
has  his  fixed  charges  and  it  is  the  client  who 
determines  for  himself  just  how  much  he  can 
afford  to  spend  on  engineering  services  in  order  to 
save  money.  Occasionally,  in  fact,  frequently,  the 
client  makes  a  mistake  in  employing  a  cheaper 
man  than  he  should.  Some  consulting  engineers 
charge,  earn  and  receive  fees  of  five  hundred  dol- 
lars per  day.  The  number  of  men  in  the  United 
States  in  so  enviable  a  position  may  probably  be 
counted  on  the  fingers  of  a  man  possessing  the 
normal  equipment  of  fingers.  Needless  to  say  they 
do  not  receive  such  pay  every  day  in  the  year,  nor 
for  many  days  in  any  year.  The  bulk  of  their 
income  comes  from  work  they  undertake  on  per- 
centage, the  same  as  an  architect.  They  serve  a 
class  of  clients  that  makes  it  necessary  to  employ  a 
large  staff  and  rent  offices  in  expensive  buildings 


152  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

so  that  some  engineers  are  under  an  expense  of 
from  one  to  five  thousand  dollars  per  week. 

The  general  charge  for  consulting  engineers  is 
one  hundred  dollars  per  day,  with  expenses  added 
when  the  employment  takes  them  away  from  their 
home  city.  A  great  many  good  men  can  be 
obtained  for  fifty  dollars  per  day.  Men  who  have 
worked  up  a  fairly  good  practice  on  medium  and 
small  work  and  who  are  seldom  engaged  by  the 
more  wealthy  employers,  charge  twenty-five  dol- 
lars per  day.  The  average  engineer  in  private 
practice  starts  out  with  a  charge  of  about  fifteen 
dollars  per  day  for  strictly  consultation  work  and 
ten  dollars  per  day  for  ordinary  work.  In  places 
of  less  than  25,000  inhabitants  the  usual  rate  is 
about  eight  dollars  per  day,  while,  surveyors 
seldom  charge  more  than  five  dollars  per  day  for 
their  work.  The  day  of  an  engineer  away  from 
his  office  is  not  eight  hours,  but  is  generally 
counted  from  an  hour  before  the  sun  rises  until  as 
far  into  the  night  as  is  necessary  to  get  his  notes 
in  shape.  A  number  of  years  ago  the  writer  was 
located  in  a  small  western  town  and  his  charges 
were  as  follows :  Important  work  of  a  strictly  con- 
sultation nature,  twenty-five  dollars  per  day  for 
less  than  one  week,  plus  expenses,  and  when  work 
lasted  more  than  a  week  the  charge  was  twenty- 
five  dollars  for  the  first  three  days,  twenty  dollars 
for  the  next  three  days  and  fifteen  dollars  for  the 
remainder  of  the  time.  Few  jobs  of  this  kind 


ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION  153 

lasted  more  than  three  days,  the  sliding  scale  being 
an  inducement  to  get  longer  employment,  an 
artifice  that  often  succeeded.  For  general  work, 
such  as  surveying,  drafting  and  taking  charge  of 
construction,  ten  dollars  per  day  and  expenses  for 
less  than  twenty  days'  work ;  for  more  than  twenty 
days'  work,  ten  dollars  per  day  for  the  first  ten 
days  and  nine  dollars  per  day  for  the  second  ten 
days,  after  which  the  charge  was  eight  dollars 
per  day  for  the  following  thirty  days,  dropping 
to  six  dollars  per  day  and  remaining  at  that  level 
until  the  completion  of  the  work.  There  were  two 
reasons  for  this  sliding  scale,  the  first  and  most 
important  being  that  it  acted  to  make  jobs  last 
longer ;  the  second  being  that  the  high-class  work 
is  generally  the  first  part  of  every  job.  After  the 
plans  are  made  the  work  is  of  such  a  routine  nature 
that  the  average  employer  is  tempted  to  dismiss 
a  highly  paid  man  and  employ  a  cheaper  one  to 
look  after  the  execution  of  the  contract.  This  is 
where  the  average  employer  makes  a  mistake,  and 
few  can  be  made  to  see  it  that  way,  but  they  are 
willing  to  employ  as  a  superintendent,  the  man 
who  planned  the  work  rather  than  put  on  a 
stranger,  provided  the  difference  in  pay  is  not 
great.  The  work  in  that  section  was  of  such  a 
nature  that  no  engineer  could  employ  assistants 
to  do  his  work,  all  employers  insisting  upon 
the  personal  attention  of  the  engineer,  so  there 
was  small  opportunity  to  do  much  more  work  than 


154  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

a  man  could  do  in  the  twenty-four  hours,  so 
mercifully  allotted  to  a  day.  Sunday  was  a  fine 
day  in  which  to  catch  up.  From  the  first  of 
November  to  the  following  April  the  engineer  had 
plenty  of  time  to  improve  his  mind,  provided  he 
was  able  to  purchase  books  and  papers. 

When  men  in  large  cities  ask  less  than  twenty- 
five  dollars  per  day  and  expenses  for  their  services, 
it  is  understood  they  have  severe  competition ;  how 
severe  it  is  impossible  to  tell.  When  the  average 
engineer  loses  a  salaried  job  and  is  looking  for 
another  he  often  takes  up  consultation  work  and 
hawks  his  services  from  office  to  office  of  men  who 
employ  consulting  engineers.  Taking  up  such 
work  as  a  temporary  expedient  only  and  needing 
it  to  keep  alive,  he  works  for  fees  ranging  from 
three  to  six  dollars  per  day.  When  a  negro 
preacher,  who  received  an  annual  salary  of  fifty 
dollars,  was  told  that  it  was  mighty  poor  pay,  he 
replied  that  he  gave  in  return  mighty  poor  preach. 
The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire  and  the  cheap 
man  is  generally  dear  at  any  price.  When  a  man 
knows  he  is  working  for  less  than  his  services  are 
really  worth,  and  feels  that  his  employer  realizes 
it,  he  works  always  with  a  discontented  feeling  and 
gives  just  as  little  as  possible. 

The  enormous  growth  in  number  and  size  of 
corporations  conducting  vast  industrial  enter- 
prises has  absorbed  thousands  of  technically 
educated  men  annually,  but  the  age  limit  for 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  155 

employment  has  been  lowered.  The  semi-socialistic 
policy  of  pensioning  employes  after  they  reach  a 
certain  age,  or  have  completed  a  definite  number 
of  years  of  employment,  compels  employers  to 
adopt  a  rule  fixing  an  age  limit  for  new  employes. 
This  rule  also  works  to  assist  consulting  engineers, 
who  are  employed  on  transient  work  requiring 
broader  experience  than  any  of  the  men  in  the 
engineering  department  of  the  corporation  possess, 
but  this  is  incidental.  The  fixing  of  a  maximum 
entering  age  limit  insures  getting  the  maximum 
number  of  years  of  employment  out  of  a  man 
before  retiring  him.  Fifty  years  ago  the  average 
age  of  college  graduates  was  about  twenty-one, 
while  to-day  few  boys  graduate  from  high  school 
under  the  age  of  nineteen.  The  average  age  of 
engineering  school  graduates  is  about  twenty- 
three,  and  the  deadline  in  securing  permanent 
salaried  employment  is  between  thirty  and  thirty- 
five.  A  corporation  pensioning  employes  after 
thirty  years'  continuous  service  does  not  like  to 
have  men  on  the  payroll  long  after  they  are  sixty. 
If  the  young  technical  graduate,  therefore,  does 
not  succeed  in  landing  a  permanent  salaried  job 
before  the  age  of  thirty-five  he  is  doomed  to  roam 
the  earth. 

Men  who  specialize  most  closely  at  school  are 
the  poorest  paid,  as  a  rule.  They  so  thoroughly 
prepare  themselves  in  the  specialty  that  they  are 
narrow  and,  perforce,  compelled  to  look  for  posi- 


156  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

tions  in  which  this  knowledge  is  necessary.  Manu- 
facturers and  corporations  take  advantage  of  this. 
When  more  assistants  are  required  in  certain 
departments  the  information  is  conveyed  in  some 
way  to  a  nearby  technical  school,  or  an  intimation 
is  given  to  the  omnipresent  newspaper  reporter  or 
special  writer  that  there  is  a  lack  of  trained  men 
for  such  work  and  that  a  job  will  be  given  to  every 
young  man  who  specializes  in  this  particular 
subject.  When  the  news  gets  out  there  is  great 
interest  manifested  in  it  by  the  seniors,  who  have 
electives,  and  in  the  spring,  the  Dean,  in  a  flowery 
speech,  which  is  sent  broadcast  over  the  country 
by  the  Associated  Press,  announces  that  the  entire 
graduating  class  was  supplied  with  positions 
before  graduation,  and  was,  with  difficulty,  held 
in  school  until  the  last  day. 

Dissatisfaction  with  the  prospects  for  advance- 
ment is  soon  manifested,  and  one  by  one  the  boys 
drop  out,  or  are  discharged  for  kicking  and 
grumbling,  finally  leaving  only  a  few,  who,  being 
relieved  of  close  competition,  do  have  some  oppor- 
tunity to  advance.  Frequently  the  men  who  are 
left  and  go  to  the  top,  are  not  the  best  of  the 
lot,  but  they  deserve  what  measure  of  success  they 
achieve  because  they  stick.  The  restless  ambition, 
or  desires,  of  the  American  boy  and  his  quickness 
to  resent  exploitation  gives  the  well-trained 
foreigner  his  opportunity.  Coming  from  a 
crowded  country  where  pay  is  low,  the  pay  the 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  157 

American  considers  absurdly  low  is  to  him,  handi- 
capped by  the  necessity  for  learning  a  new 
language  very  good  and  he  stays  year  after  year, 
proving  himself  steady  and  reliable.  He  has  bred 
in  him  a  feeling  of  content  when  his  bread  and 
butter  are  secure.  His  many  years  of  scholastic 
training  have  given  him  a  liking  for  the  quiet 
studiousness  of  the  laboratory,  the  computing 
room  and  drafting  office,  which  the  American  boy, 
with  his  fewer  years  of  less  intense  schooling, 
interspersed  with  practical  outdoor  life  and 
indulgence  in  field  athletics  finds  irksome.  The 
foreigner  is,  therefore,  preferred  in  many  places 
for  the  reason  that  he  fits  in  very  nicely  as  a  well- 
adjusted  part  of  a  machine.  He  is  not  obnoxious 
in  seeking  advancement,  but  is  always  ready  for 
it  when  it  comes.  Many  foreigners  now  head 
important  enterprises  in  America  because  they 
stuck  to  a  job  when  they  had  a  chance.  There 
are  no  rules  to  set  before  young  men  except  to  tell 
them  that  if  they  land  in  a  place  where  the  work 
is  congenial,  they  should  stay  with  it  and  provide 
for  the  future  by  living  within  their  income.  More 
men  become  well  to  do  by  saving  than  by  earning 
high  pay.  The  men  who  succeed  best  in  the 
world  are  generally  those  who  are  content  to  wait 
for  the  pleasures  of  life  after  they  have  made 
arrangements  to  provide  a  surplus  out  of  which 
the  pleasures  will  be  paid  for.  There  are  many 
solid  pleasures  in  life  other  than  the  wearing  of 


158  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

fine  clothes,  eating  fine  food,  seeing  the  latest  plays 
and  riding  in  automobiles. 

Many  professors  advise  their  pupils  to  shift 
considerably  the  first  few  years  after  graduation 
in  order  to  gain  experience.  Men  who  give  such 
advice  to-day  have  not  kept  up  with  the  world,  and 
do  not  know  their  advice  is  thirty  years  late  in  the 
United  States,  and  is  about  one  hundred  years  late 
as  compared  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  law 
of  supply  and  demand  is  pretty  effectually  settling 
this  question  of  shifting  around,  and  the  world 
never  looked  with  favor  on  the  " rolling  stone." 
Thirty  years  ago  there  was  a  dearth  of  engineers 
in  the  United  States,  and  as  much  of  the  work 
requires  a  modicum  of  training,  numbers  of  half- 
educated  men  entered  the  profession  and  some 
achieved  considerable  success.  To-day  there  exists 
considerable  difficulty  in  properly  absorbing  the 
surplus  graduates  of  technical  schools  at  home, 
in  addition  to  "die  Auswanderer"  from  the  foreign 
school. 

Getting  down  to  salaries,  there  is  no  set  rule. 
The  employer  fixes  rates  of  pay  and  the  engineer 
is  free  to  take  it  or  leave  it,  this  being  the  reverse 
of  the  rule  for  compensating  consulting  engineers 
of  standing.  Much  depends  on  the  employer  and 
much  depends  on  the  employe.  In  one  building,  in 
different  offices,  will  be  found  men  doing  exactly 
similar  work  for  different  employers  at  widely  dif- 
fering rates  of  pay.  The  writer  knows  one  man 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  159 

who  receives  $3000  per  year  from  his  employers 
who  fear  every  day  that  some  one  may  make  him  a 
better  offer.  Across  the  street  another  man  of  the 
same  age,  and  fully  as  good  education  and  experi- 
ence, is  doing  the  same  kind  of  work  for  a  larger 
company  and  with  fewer  assistants,  for  $1800  per 
year.  The  men  employing  the  higher  paid  engineer 
are  satisfied  with  him  and  propose  to  keep  him. 
They  know  they  are  paying  what  is  generally  con- 
sidered to  be  much  more  than  the  market  rate  for 
the  work  he  does,  but  they  are  satisfied  and  so  it  is 
nobody's  business  but  theirs.  The  responsibilities 
of  an  engineer  are  so  great  that  it  would  be  an  easy 
matter  for  an  incompetent  man,  or  a  green  man,  to 
cause  a  loss  on  one  piece  of  work  which  would 
amount  to  several  times  his  annual  salary.  This 
man,  therefore,  holds  on  because  he  has  made 
good,  although  envious  acquaintances  say  he  is  a 
"bluffer,"  The  lower  paid  man  says  that  he  holds 
one  because  he  has  observed  that  $150  per  month 
is  close  to  the  dead  line  and  that  when  dull  times 
come  engineers  who  receive  more  than  that  are 
not  certain  of  their  positions.  He  prefers  a  life 
job  at  $150  per  month  than  the  uncertainties  that 
accompany  better  pay.  He  is  no  sport,  but  he 
has  a  nice  little  family  and  is  buying  a  home  on 
the  installment  plan. 

Railways  give  considerable  employment  of  a 
transient  nature  to  engineers  and  the  organization 


160  ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION 

of  maintenance-of-way  departments,  together 
with  the  establishment  of  repair  departments,  and 
the  fact  that  railways  generally  design  all  their 
own  bridges  and  buildings  and  do  less  work  by  con- 
tract than  was  formerly  common,  has  led  to  the 
permanent  employment  of  many  men,  although  the 
pay  is  not  very  high  in  the  lower  ranks  and  pro- 
motion is  not  rapid.  For  transient  employment 
the  pay  is  about  as  shown  in  the  following  table,  it 
being  an  average  arranged  from  a  study  of  the  pay 
tables  of  about  ten  roads : 

District  Engineer,  super- 
vising several  parties  on 
preliminary  or  location 

surveys $125  to  $175  per  month. 

Chief  of  Party 85  "  150 

Topographer 80  "  100 

Transitman   75  "  100 

Leveler 60  "  90 

Rodman  35  "  50 

Draftsman 65  "  100 

Head  Chainman 40  "  60         " 

BearChaiman 30"  50 

Tapeman   30 ."  35 

Back  Flag 25  "  30 

Axeman  22  "  35 

Stake  Artist 25  "  30 

Teamster   25  "  35 

Cook 40  "  60 

Flunky   (Cookee).. 20  "  30 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  161 

The  company  furnishes  tents  and  feeds  the 
men  in  addition  to  the  above  pay;  the  men  fur- 
nishing their  own  blankets.  On  construction  work 
the  pay  is  about  ten  dollars  per  month  more,  but 
the  men  pay  their  own  board  out  of  this,  taking 
their  meals  in  the  contractors'  camps  or  in  nearby 
farm  houses,  the  construction  parties,  as  a  rule, 
being  small  and  moving  around  so  much  that  the 
keeping  up  of  a  cook  outfit  would  be  too  expensive. 
There  being  always  a  surplus  of  unemployed  men, 
it  is  possible  to  equip  and  send  out  a  full  party 
within  twenty-four  hours  from  almost  any  fair 
sized  city.  These  rates  of  pay  also  obtain  on  sur- 
vey parties  for  irrigation  and  drainage  work, 
although  on  such  work  the  chief  of  party  will 
receive  higher  pay.  The  chief  of  a  railway  party 
is  not  likely  to  be  the  chief  engineer  of  the  rail- 
way, whereas  the  chief  engineer  of  an  irrigation 
or  drainage  district  generally  goes  into  the  field 
in  charge  of  the  survey  work. 

For  the  work  mentioned  the  pay  goes  with  the 
job,  regardless  of  the  experience  of  the  man,  pro- 
vided his  experience  has  been  sufficient  to  insure 
him  getting  the  work.  Personal  acquaintance  has 
much  to  do  with  securing  positions  on  such  parties, 
high  officials  generally  having  relatives  or  friends 
to  take  care  of.  The  writer  has  taken  out  parties 
when  every  man,  except  the  cook  and  his  helper, 
was  competent  to  hold  any  position  on  the  party, 
and  some  had  been  in  charge  of  parties  at  some 


162  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

time.  He  has  also  gone  out  with  parties  composed 
almost  wholly  of  high  school  boys,  " official  sons," 
and  college  graduates,  with  little  or  no  experience. 
His  part  was  done  when  he  dutifully  took  them 
out  and  the  favor  of  the  officials  to  their  friends 
was  done  when  the  boys  were  given  positions. 
That  nearly  all  were  sent  back  inside  of  a  week  as 
incompetent,  simply  meant  a  little  more  expense 
to  the  corporation  and  was  expected ;  for  the  chief 
is  held  rigidly  accountable  for  mistakes  and  is  also 
expected  to  cover  a  certain  amount  of  territory 
each  day,  so  only  a  few  green  men  can  be  retained 
if  work  is  to  be  pushed.  Summer  survey  parties 
are  fine  for  college  students  seeking  to  gain  experi- 
ence and  earn  money  while  having  a  vacation  in 
the  open  air.  Some  railway  companies  in  the  older 
settled  states  have  a  ridiculously  low  wage  scale 
for  such  work,  depending  upon  the  work  being 
done  in  vacation  months  by  students  seeking 
experience.  These  poor  dupes  fail  to  understand 
how  injuriously  they  are  affecting  the  wage  scale, 
and  the  professors,  who  encourage  it  and  some- 
times act  as  chiefs  of  party,  are  censurable  for 
being  so  short  sighted. 

Opportunity  is  half  of  life.  A  study  of  the  two 
accompanying  diagrams  illustrates  this  most 
forcibly.  Figure  3  presents  a  very  nice  curve 
of  average  income  received  by  graduates  of 
an  institution  situated  near  the  most  highly 
developed  portion  of  the  United  States,  tech- 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 


163 


nieally  and  commercially;  many  of  the  grad- 
uates, no  doubt,  having  gone  into  a  business  owned 
or  controlled  by  relatives  and  many  having,  for 
some  years,  been  in  private  practice  in  financial 
centers.  The  shaded  areas  give  the  highest  and 
lowest  incomes  reported,  the  heavy  line  being  the 
average  of  the  averages  for  each  year.  The 
average  income  does  not  represent  the  income  of 
men  known  as  engineers,  in  the  common  accept- 


$8000 
|  $7000 
§  $6000 
£  $5000 
5  $4000 
$3000 
$2000 
$1000 


W/A 


18 


2  i  6  8          10          12          H          1 

Years  after  Graduation 

FIG.  3 — Reported  Incomes  of  Worcester  (Mass.)  Polytechnic  Institute 

Graduates. 

ance  of  the  term,  but  represents  the  incomes  of 
men  who  graduated  in  engineering  courses.  Simi- 
lar curves  can  be  drawn  for  classical  schools  of 
equal  standing  in  this  section  of  the  country,  the 
course  of  study  having  little  to  do  with  the  curve. 
Figure  4  is  the  result  of  a  study  of  a  western 
school  of  practically  as  high  standing.  The  farmer 
boys  of  the  middle  west  make  splendid  engineers, 
but  their  start  in  life  is  in  a  developing  country, 
where  the  work  is  of  a  pioneering  nature,  and 


164 


ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION 


pioneer  work  is  always  illy  paid.  The  line  repre- 
senting the  average  income  is  almost  straight,  but 
up  to  the  eighth  year  after  graduation  the  two 
schools  seem  to  be  on  an  equality,  thus  showing 
that  the  young  man  is  employed  in  minor  positions 
carrying  little  responsibility.  The  greater  fluctua- 
tions in  income  show  that  the  Iowa  graduates 
stuck  more  to  technical  engineering  work  than  did 
the  Massachusetts  graduates,  and  the  low  average 


4  6  8  10          12          1±         16  18         20 

Years  after  Graduation 
FIG.  4 — Reported  Incomes  of  Iowa  State  College  (Ames,  la.)  Graduates. 

would  also  indicate  this.  In  the  first  diagram  the 
average  annual  income  at  the  end  of  twenty  years 
is  $9000,  whereas  in  the  second  diagram  it  is  about 
$3800.  These  two  diagrams  cover  the  period  since 
the  civil  war,  when,  for  about  fifteen  years,  the 
country  was  developing  so  rapidly  that  engineer- 
ing schools  had  difficulty  in  furnishing  enough 
graduates.  Similar  diagrams  thirty  years  from 
now  will  probably  show  a  slight  rise  in  the  average 
income  of  graduates  from  western  schools,  with  a 


ENGINEEKING  AS  A  VOCATION  165 

considerable  drop  in  the  average  income  of  grad- 
uates from  eastern  schools. 

These  diagrams  are  presented  just  as  the 
average  newspaper  or  magazine  would  present 
them.  The  reports  from  which  they  are  taken  go 
into  considerable  detail  and  would  hardly  be  inter- 
esting to  the  reader  of  this  little  book.  To  read 
the  full  discussion  confirms  one  in  the  opinion 
that,  as  a  rule,  showings  of  averages  are  misleading 
without  an  accompanying  full  discussion.  The 
report  from  the  western  school  seems  to  the  writer, 
whose  experience  has  been  almost  wholly  between 
Chicago  and  the  Pacific  coast,  to  represent  con- 
ditions more  accurately,  so  far  as  the  technical 
engineer  is  concerned,  than  the  report  from  the 
eastern  school.  Both  reports  are  on  selected 
bodies  of  men  and  do  not,  by  any  means,  represent 
the  entire  body  of  the  profession,  for  a  great  many 
men  practising  engineering  and  calling  themselves 
engineers,  are  non-graduates.  Instead  of  the  lines 
of  average  income  representing  actual  averages, 
they  represent  to  the  majority  of  graduates,  the 
amounts  they  should  be  entitled  to  receive  in  the 
years  given.  That  is,  the  pay  shown  as  an  annual 
average,  represents  what  should  be  twelve  times 
the  monthly  pay  an  experienced  engineer  hopes  to 
receive  when  employed.  It  is  really  awkward  to 
have  to  explain  that  the  average  line  on  Figure  4 
is  here  referred  to,  the  average  line  on  Figure  3 
being  a  dream  after  the  fifteenth  year  is  passed. 


166  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

The  average  engineer,  chasing  from  job  to  job, 
may  work  awhile  for  over  $200  per  month,  and, 
after  a  period  of  idleness,  take  a  place  at  a  little 
over  $100  per  month.  A  good  draftsman  can 
generally  secure  fairly  steady  employment, 
although  the  pay,  as  a  rule,  is  not  high,  for  so 
much  of  the  work  can  be  done  by  partially 
educated  boys  and  men.  One  designer  can  keep 
many  draftsmen  busy  and  on  some  classes  of  work 
one  computer  can  keep  two  or  three  head  drafts- 
men with  their  assistants  fully  occupied. 

Engineers  are  a  product  of  civilization,  and, 
therefore,  get  along  best  in  populous  centers.  They 
are  closely  dependent  upon  capitalists  for  employ- 
ment and  when  capital  is  not  active  the  engineer 
rests.  Three  generations  ago  Horace  Greeley 
gave  his  famous  advice  to  young  men  to  go  west. 
To-day  a  great  many  engineering  students 
announce  that  upon  graduation  they  will  go  to  the 
growing  western  states  where  engineers  are  in 
demand. 

The  writer  spent  two-thirds  of  his  professional 
life  in  states  west  of  the  Eocky  Mountains,  and 
has  found  the  East  better,  so  far  as  chances  for 
continuous  employment  are  concerned,  and  far 
better  when  the  question  of  pay  is  considered. 
Every  western  state  has  a  state  university  and 
many  have  an  agricultural  school  and  school  of 
mechanic  arts  as  well,  largely  supported  by  United 
States  funds  under  the  provisions  of  the  Morrill 


ENGINEERING  AS   A  VOCATION  167 

Act.  All  these  schools  have  engineering  courses 
arranged  to  meet  local  needs.  They  graduate  more 
men  than  are  required  to  fill  vacancies,  so  that 
every  eastern  man  who  goes  in  adds  to  the  con- 
gestion and  increases  the  severity  of  the  compe- 
tition. The  writer  has  been  in  over  fifty  places  east 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  having  populations  of 
more  than  3000,  in  which  there  were  no  signs  to  be 
found  of  engineers  or  surveyors  or  architects,  and 
it  took  diligent  inquiry  in  some  of  them  to  discover 
that  men  were  living  there,  or  close  by,  who  could 
be  engaged  to  do  some  surveying.  It  is  a  per- 
fectly safe  statement  to  make  that  in  every  hamlet 
containing  more  than  1000  inhabitants  in  the  far 
western  states  a  good  surveyor  can  be  found,  and 
in  the  average  place  of  more  than  3000  inhabitants, 
there  will  be  an  average  of  about  one  and  one-half 
engineers  and  architects  to  every  1000  of  popula- 
tion. In  one  place  of  1700  population  the  writer 
knew  two  graduated  civil  engineers,  one  of  whom 
paid  office  rent  and  the  other  had  a  room  at  home 
fixed  up  as  an  office ;  two  non-graduate  civil  engi- 
neers; two  land  "butchers";  one  graduated 
mining  engineer;  three  non-graduate  mining 
"experts";  two  architects,  one  of  whom  also  took 
building  contracts.  Such  a  condition  of  affairs  is 
not  at  all  uncommon  in  the  mountain  states  of  the 
West. 

To  thinly  settled  parts  of  the  world  the  engi- 
neer  should  never  go  with  the   expectation   of 


168  ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION 

becoming  wealthy,  or  even  moderately  successful 
in  the  practice  of  his  profession.  He  will  find  in 
those  countries  nearly  all  of  the  inhabitants  to  be 
fairly  ingenious  men  in  many  ways,  of  small 
means,  and  they  do  not  call  upon  the  engineer  to  do 
much  outside  of  surveying.  They  use  " practical" 
men  to  do  work  the  engineer  is  employed  to  do  in 
the  more  densely  populated  sections,  where  all  men 
must  of  necessity  be  specialists.  On  the  frontier 
the  book-taught,  school-bred  man  is  not  classed 
with  " practical"  men,  who  are  supposed  to  be 
horny-handed  sons  of  toil.  The  work  in  sparsely 
settled  parts  of  the  world  is  of  a  petty  nature  when 
financed  by  the  local  inhabitants  and  can  just  as 
well  be  done  by  less  well  prepared  men  than  the 
graduates  of  a  good  school.  That  is,  it  is  done 
well  enough  to  satisfy  the  men  who  pay  the  bills, 
for  the  amounts  spent  are  small,  and  fine  economics 
are  of  the  " stingy"  sort,  real  economic  saving 
being  unknown. 

When  large  work  is  undertaken  on  the  frontier 
it  is  financed  from  the  large  cities  and  the  engineer 
in  charge  is  sent  out  from  the  home  city  of  the 
corporation.  He  is  generally  fully  supplied  with 
assistants,  most  of  them  being  sons  of  men  having 
influence  with  the  directors,  many  being  relatives 
of  officers  in  the  corporation.  The  local  engineer 
in  the  frontier  town  is  looked  upon  with  curiosity 
by  these  men  from  the  great  city  where  wealth  is 
stored  and  has  small  chance  for  employment.  It 


ENGINEERING   AS  A  VOCATION  169 

happens  occasionally  that  the  man  sent  out  is  not 
fully  competent  to  handle  the  work  and  a  local 
man  can  be  picked  up  who  is  perfectly  competent. 
The  chief  engineer  makes  this  local  man  his  prin- 
cipal assistant  to  practically  take  entire  charge, 
the  chief  making  a  good  reputation  out  of  the 
ability  of  his  assistant.  This  is  something  that 
happens  in  lines  of  work  other  than  engineering. 

It  is  a  pretty  good  plan  when  an  engineer 
finishes  an  engagement  out  on  the  edge  of  civiliza- 
tion to  return  to  the  financial  center  before  his 
money  is  gone,  instead  of  going  into  private 
practice  in  a  new  country,  only  to  be  finally 
starved  out.  On  a  salary  a  man  can  live  any- 
where, and,  under  proper  conditions,  a  man  should 
elect  to  live  where  he  most  enjoys  life.  If  con- 
ditions are  not  right  then  he  should  live  where  a 
living  is  most  readily  obtained. 

The  true  engineer  is  a  man  of  action,  resource- 
ful, ingenious,  executive;  the  sort  of  man  who 
would  succeed  whatever  line  of  work  he  took  up. 
The  work  of  computing  quantities,  calculating- 
strains  and  stresses,  drawing  lines  upon  paper,  is 
only  clerical  work  after  all.  It  is  of  a  higher  order 
than  ordinary  clerical  work,  such  as  requires 
practice  rather  than  education,  but  it  is,  neverthe- 
less, clerical.  If  a  young  engineer  is  not  settled  in 
some  permanent  position  within  ten  years  after 
leaving  school,  he  should  cast  around  for  some 
other  line  of  employment,  brave  his  relatives,  who 


170  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

never  can  be  brought  to  understand  conditions,  and 
make  a  new  start.  Successful  men  always  win 
success  by  passing  over  the  heads  of  those  who 
fail. 

The  question  is  often  asked,  "  Which  branch  of 
engineering  pays  best?"  So  far  as  financial 
rewards  go  there  is  little  choice.  In  all  branches 
there  are  successful  as  well  as  unsuccessful  men. 
If  the  intending  student  has  no  ideas  upon 
the  subject  himself,  and  his  parents  have  no 
connections  whereby  they  can  advance  him  in  any 
special  branch,  he  should  not  go  into  engineering. 
The  choice  may  pretty  safely  be  left  to  the  boy  if 
he  is  bent  upon  being  an  engineer.  Something 
more  than  casual  advice  should  influence  one  in 
the  selection  of  a  career. 

Steady  employment  of  engineers  is  to  be 
expected  the  closer  they  keep  to  manufacturing 
lines.  For  this  reason  mechanical  engineering  and 
electrical  engineering  are  considered  good.  The 
starting  pay,  however,  is  small  and  promotion  is 
very  slow.  In  this  connection  a  study  of  the  charts 
of  average  income  is  good,  for  the  fluctuating 
income  and  low  average  is  in  a  section  of  the 
country  with  little  manufacturing. 

The  steady  job  with  a  future  pays,  as  a  rule, 
poorly  at  the  start.  The  transient  job  is  always 
comparatively  well  paid.  Within  the  past  few 
years,  however,  there  have  been  indications  that 
the  maximum  for  mechanical  and  electrical  engi- 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  171 

neers  has  been  reached  and  the  curves  of  average 
income  are  flatter.  The  boom  period  has  pretty 
nearly  ended,  and  the  period  of  slow,  steady 
growth,  proportionate  to  population,  has  set  in. 
Machines  are  being  rapidly  standardized,  which 
calls  for  less  skill  on  the  part  of  the  office  employes. 
Salaries  may  be  slightly  larger  in  the  high  posi- 
tions, but  they  will  stay  at  the  present  level  or 
slightly  decrease  in  the  lower  grades,  which,  with 
the  increasing  cost  of  living,  means  an  actual 
reduction  in  incomes  as  now  reported.  Future 
graduates  in  mechanical  and  electrical  engineering 
must  expect  to  work  for  many  years  at  low  salaries, 
competing  with  boys  trained  in  the  shops,  who 
study  mechanical  drafting  in  the  evenings. 

The  exploitation  of  electrical  engineering 
students  by  large  corporations  has  been  shameless. 
It  has  been  a  common  practice  to  send  men  to 
a  school  with  offers  of  positions  for  the  entire 
graduating  class.  The  entering  salaries  range 
from  $40  to  $60  per  month,  and  each  man  is  given 
the  impression  that  the  company  looks  upon  him 
as  a  possible  second  Edison.  Promotion  in  the 
main  is  slow,  and  the  writer  knows  a  number  of 
young  fellows  now  getting  only  $90  and  $100  per 
month  after  five  years'  work.  They  would  have 
done  as  well  with  a  $50  course  in  bookkeeping  and 
stenography  at  a  business  college.  They  may,  of 
course,  be  exceptions,  but  electrical  engineering 
graduates  have  told  many  "hard  luck"  stories  to 


172  ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION 

the  writer,  which  had  much  to  do  with  his  deciding 
that,  after  all,  the  civil  engineering  course  was  the 
best  for  his  son,  with  some  additional  work  in  the 
electrical  engineering  department  at  school. 

The  electrical  business  is  controlled  by  a  few 
large  corporations  and  to  one  of  these  a  young 
fellow  must  tie  himself.  The  chances  for  a  future 
are  not  particularly  good,  so  far  as  ultimate  pay 
is  concerned,  but  a  living  wage  is  almost  always 
certain  for  those  who  care  for  a  life-long  job  on  a 
salary  about  equal  to  that  of  the  average  clerk,  who 
did  not  spend  $2000,  nor  one-tenth  part  of  that 
amount,  on  his  education.  It  has  been  remarked 
before  that  some  iruen  do  succeed  who  can  hang  on, 
and  the  successful  men  are  not  always  those  who 
would  have  been  picked  as  probable  successful 
ones,  when  at  school.  Often  mediocrity  wins  where 
intelligence  of  a  high  order  fails,  because  of  the 
ambition  that  goes  with  intelligence. 

When  mining  engineers  get  fairly  started  their 
pay  is  good,  but  in  the  course  of  time  every  mine  is 
worked  out  and  a  new  job  is  sought.  In  the  mining 
business  changes  in  the  directorate  and  manage- 
ment occur  more  frequently  than  in  any  other  busi- 
ness, for  the  average  investor  does  not  look  upon 
mining  as  a  business,  but  regards  it  as  much  of  a 
gamble.  If  profits  do  not  come  up  to  expectation 
there  are  insurgent  owners  of  stock  who  rise  and 
take  control,  discharging  competent  men,  and  very 
often  putting  charlatans  in  their  places.  The  dis- 


ENGINEEEING  AS  A  VOCATION  173 

charged  men  always  labor  under  the  disadvantage 
of  having  to  explain  why  they  were  discharged 
from  a  mine  that  was  not  closed  down,  but  is  still 
operating.  Few  mining  engineers  can  expect  a 
life-long  job  with  one  company  under  the  best  of 
circumstances,  and  they  get  in  the  habit  of  calling 
a  three-  or  four-year  job  " permanent."  This 
overturning  of  management  and  discharge  of  men 
is  not  peculiar  to  mining,  but  is  common  in  all  lines 
of  business,  the  average  director  being  no  more 
competent  to  manage  a  business  than  is  the  average 
politician  to  run  a  city.  Many  business  enterprises 
would  fail  were  it  not  for  faithful,  hard-working, 
often  browbeaten  employes ;  men  with  the  special 
training  their  employers  lack. 

The  general  education  of  the  civil  engineer  is 
perhaps  the  best  fitted  to  prepare  a  man  for  engi- 
neering work,  for  it  is  the  most  broad  of  all  the 
branches,  except  mining,  and  even  that  is  now 
being  divided  into  specialties.  The  present  civil 
engineer  could  be  improved  by  adding  another  year 
to  be  put  in  on  mechanical  and  electrical  subjects. 
Upon  leaving  school  the  well-trained  civil  engi- 
neering graduate  is  competent  to  enter  the  office 
of  any  engineer  in  any  line  of  work  and  be  a  com- 
petent assistant.  If  he  was  well  trained  he  should 
be  a  fair  mechanical  and  architectural  draftsman, 
and  have  a  pretty  good  knowledge  of  prime  movers. 
This  added  to  his  knowledge  of  the  mathematical, 
physical  and  chemical  sciences,  the  properties  of 


174  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

materials,  ability  to  design  structures,  etc.,  gives 
him  far  better  fighting  chances  than  his  more  nar- 
rowly trained  brother  students,  who  specialized  on 
smaller  subjects. 

The  business  of  contracting  has  been  fairly 
revolutionized  by  technical  graduates,  this  being  a 
field  of  endeavor  in  which  the  engineer  is  fitted  to 
shine.  Not  many  years  ago  the  contractor  was 
not  looked  upon  as  a  business  man,  but  as  pretty 
much  of  a  speculator.  To-day  contracting  is  a 
legitimate  business.  When  a  manufacturer  can 
determine  his  costs  properly  he  is  in  a  position  to 
conduct  his  business  at  a  profit.  The  system  and 
method  introduced  into  the  business  of  contract- 
ing within  late  years  by  engineers,  have  converted 
it  into  a  manufacturing  business,  carrying  no  more 
risk  than  that  of  any  other  manufacturing  busi- 
ness. There  are  a  few  old  style  contractors  in 
existence,  but  their  number  is  growing  less,  and 
many,  even  of  the  most  conservative,  employ  engi- 
neers, thus  putting  to  shame  the  few  men  who  still 
claim  that  the  school  instruction  is  not  " practical" 
enough.  The  training  in  exact  analysis  which 
every  engineering  student  receives,  is  just  what  is 
needed  in  every  line  of  business,  and  has  been 
justified  by  the  experience  of  contracting  since 
engineers  took  it  up. 

The  civil  engineer  has  good  opportunities  to 
start  in  at  the  bottom  of  the  ladder  in  mechanical 
and  electrical  engineering  work,  and  advances  very 


ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION  175 

rapidly  up  the  ladder  in  general  contracting  work. 
He  has  also  good  preliminary  training  for  work- 
ing as  an  architect,  provided  he  possesses  artistic 
talent.  It  is  gratifying  to  see  the  numbers  of 
young  civil  engineers  who  enter  the  employ  of 
.architects  to  do  the  structural  designing  and  act 
as  outside  superintendents  of  construction.  The 
putting  in  of  deep  foundations  is  a  specialty  in 
itself  and,  of  course,  no  one  is  so  well  adapted  to 
this  class  of  work  as  the  young  man  trained  as  a 
civil  or  mining  engineer.  The  old-time  civil  engi- 
neer, who  was  almost  wholly  a  surveyor,  has  disap- 
peared and  the  present  day  surveyor  is  that  and 
nothing  else,  for  a  man  who  has  taken  a  full 
engineering  course  seldom  cares  to  settle  down  to 
the  practice  of  "land  butchering"  in  a  small 
country  town. 

The  education  of  a  civil  engineer  is  an  excellent 
preparation  for  general  business,  for  nearly  all 
men  are  concerned  more  or  less  with  construction 
enterprises  in  these  days.  This  training  is 
superior  to  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek,  no  mat- 
ter what  line  of  work  a  man  goes  into.  A  business 
man  having  two  sons  whom  he  intends  taking  into 
business  with  him,  but  prefers  that  they  have  a 
college  training  first,  can  hardly  do  better  than 
have  one  study  law  and  the  other  civil  engineer- 
ing, before  going  into  his  office  to  learn  the  busi- 
ness, with  a  view  to  partnership  later. 

Salaries  of  young  engineers,  when  they  are 


176  ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION 

working,  are  generally  pretty  fair  as  salaries  go 
for  young  men.  It  is  a  shock  to  them,  however, 
when  they  learn  that  salaries  do  not  necessarily 
increase  with  age  and  experience,  but  are  gov- 
erned very  largely  by  responsibility,  hence ' '  salaries 
go  with  the  job."  The  curves  of  average  income 
in  the  two  diagrams  elsewhere  presented,  show  an 
increase  as  the  years  go  by,  which  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  this  is  governed  largely  by  the  men  who 
have  permanent  high-paid  positions,  and  by  those 
who  are  in  business  for  themselves,  as  well,  also,  by 
the  fact  that,  all  things  being  equal,  the  older  men 
are  generally  trusted  with  greater  responsibility. 
The  bottom  edges  of  the  shaded  areas  must  not 
be  overlooked,  for  averages  are  very  deceitful. 
The  maximum  and  minimum  salaries  at  the  end  of 
the  twenty-year  periods  may  be  given  by  a  much 
smaller  per  cent,  of  the  total  number  of  men ;  that 
is,  the  averages  for  the  first  few  years  may  have 
been  obtained  from  a  very  large  number  and  the 
higher  averages  from  a  small  number,  which,  in 
reality,  was  a  small  per  cent,  of  the  number  still 
living. 

That  salaries  and  the  pay  of  men  who  have  to 
seek  employment  may  be  low  has  no  effect  on  men 
in  private  practice,  and  those  whose  varied  experi- 
ence leads  them  to  be  selected  to  conduct  important 
work.  These  men  get  pay  commensurate  with 
their  experience  and  ability.  The  average  pay  of 
lawyers,  surgeons  and  physicians  is  less  than  $600 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  177 

per  year,  yet  it  is  well  known  that  there  are  men 
in  each  of  these  callings  whose  incomes  are  much 
larger  than  the  salary  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  The  average  man,  after  all,  has 
little  to  do  with  the  income  of  the  more  fortunate 
man.  Each  man  receives  what  his  services  are 
believed  to  be  worth,  and  every  properly  equipped 
man  starts  with  an  equal  chance. 

If  he  wishes  to  succeed,  the  young  man  must 
bear  in  mind  the  old  saying, ' '  Seest  thou  a  man  dili- 
gent in  his  business  ?  He  shall  stand  before  kings. 
He  shall  not  stand  before  mean  men."  The 
greatest  measure  of  success  comes  to  the  man  who 
makes  the  fullest  use  of  his  opportunities.  We 
may  float  upon  the  stream  of  life,  but  to  some 
extent  we  have  the  ordering  of  our  ways.  Patience, 
ability,  industry,  strict  economy,  rigid  honestyr 
good  habits,  avoidance  of  inferior  and  weak 
associates,  these  all  bring  their  own  reward. 
Given  a  number  of  men,  each  with  enough  ability 
to  do  the  routine  work  of  his  calling,  success 
becomes  a  matter  of  the  man  and  his  opportunity 
rather  than  matters  of  exceptional  ability  or 
genius.  Opportunity  is  one  half,  and  the  man  is 
the  other  half.  It  is  much  a  question  of  tempera- 
ment, rather  than  ability,  provided  one  has 
ordinary  ability  and  sound  training  as  a  basis. 

There  is  more  to  life  than  meat,  clothes  and 
money.  For  the  man  who  is  imbued  with  the  right 
spirit  of  the  engineer  and  loves  his  profession 


178  ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION 

there  is  a  serene  satisfaction  in  doing  his  work  well 
and  holding  his  head  high.  The  world  is  out  of 
joint  in  many  places,  and  the  engineering  pro- 
fession is  not  alone  in  offering  salt  drink  to  its 
devotees.  No  calling  is  free  from  drawbacks,  and 
engineering  especially  is  no  occupation  for  the 
man  whose  sole  motive  in  selecting  it  is  the  belief 
that  pay  is  always  high,  advancement  certain,  and 
great  wealth  the  sure  end. 

Life  is  like  a  swiftly  flowing  stream,  carrying 
upon  its  surface  many  floating  objects.  Some 
keep  near  the  center  and  move  on  serenely  with 
no  disturbance  of  any  sort,  clear  to  the  ocean  in 
which  the  river  ends.  Others  float  near  the  edge, 
unable  to  get  near  the  middle,  and  these 
occasionally  strand,  lying  on  the  sand  bars  until 
a  rise  in  the  stream  carries  them  to  another  shallow 
where  they  again  rest.  Still  others  are  caught  in 
some  eddy  and  float  round  and  round  in  restless 
circles  until  they  become  waterlogged  and  sink, 
unless,  in  the  meantime,  a  rise  in  the  stream,  or 
some  other  disturbance  takes  them  again  into  the 
main  current.  In  the  spring  many  millions  of 
blossoms  appear  upon  the  fruit  trees,  but  we  can- 
not predict  the  fruit  crop  from  the  blossoms. 
Many  infants  are  born,  but  few  reach  maturity. 
It  is  a  law  of  life  that  not  all  men  reach  the  fullest 
success,  to  this  extent  proving  that  all  men  are  not 
born  free  and  equal,  although  the  politicians  do  so 
declare.  Real  success  lies  wholly  in  a  feeling  of 


ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION  179 

work  well  done  in  the  line  of  endeavor  for  which 
a  man  is  best  qualified  and  which  commands  all 
that  is  best  in  him  to  stand  forth. 

Surely  the  man  who  "  directs  the  great  sources 
of  power  in  nature  for  the  use  and  convenience  of 
man/'  should  find  a  comfort  in  such  work  that 
will  compensate  for  many  moments  of  bitterness 
when  on  tours  of  apparently  endless  "job 
chasing. ' '  To  make  the  ways  straight  in  the  wilder- 
ness, to  carry  food  to  the  people  of  all  nations,  to 
make  fruits  and  grains  and  flowers  flourish  in 
erstwhile  desert  spots,  to  be  the  means  of  spreading 
intelligence  broadcast,  to  build  highways  which 
draw  nations  together  and  thus  end  wars  and  mis- 
understandings, to  increase  the  power  of  the  world 
to  the  end  that  one  man  is  as  five  hundred  of  the 
men  of  olden  times— surely  this  is  a  great  work. 

Of  the  truly  successful  engineer  no  better 
memorial  can  be  had  than  the  following  from  the 
poem  by  Edward  Everett  Hale,  entitled  "The 
Unnamed  Saints"; 


What  was  his  name?  I  do  not  know  his  name. 
I  only  know  he  heard  God's  voice  and  came; 
Brought  all  he  loved  across  the  sea, 
To  live  and  work  for  God  and  me, 
Felled  the  ungracious  oak, 
With  horrid  toil 
Dragged  from  the  soil 
The  thrice-gnarled  roots  and  stubborn  rock; 


180  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

With  plenty  filled  the  haggard  mountain-side, 
And,  when  his  work  was  done,  without  memorial  died. 
No  blaring  trumpet  sounded  out  his  fame; 
He  lived,  he  died.    I  do  not  know  his  name. 

No  form  of  bronze  and  no  memorial  stones 
Show  me  the  place  where  lie  his  moldering  bones. 
Only  a  cheerful  city  stands, 
Builded  by  his  hardened  hands ; 
Only  ten  thousand  homes, 
Where,  every  day, 
The  cheerful  play 

Of  love  and  hope  and  courage  comes ; 
These  are  his  monuments,  and  these  alone — 
There  is  no  form  of  bronze  and  no  memorial  stone. 


APPENDIX 


THE  OPINIONS  OF  ENGINEERING  EDITORS 

SOME  time  elapses  between  the  delivery  of  the 
manuscript  of  a  book  to  the  printers  and  the  time 
of  publication.  Much  as  an  author  regrets  this 
fact,  in  the  present  instance  it  has  been  a  boon,  for 
the  insertion  of  two  editorials  from  leading  engi- 
neering papers  has  been  rendered  possible.  The 
writer  realizes  that  the  ideas  he  has  given  of  the 
profession  of  engineering  are  so  totally  at  variance 
with  the  ideas  of  the  newspaper-reading  public, 
that  this  corroborative  testimony  is  required,  for 
the  editorials  closely  reflect  all  that  has  been  said 
in  the  preceding  pages. 

It  will,  perhaps,  do  no  harm  to  say  that  Chapter 
VI  was  written  four  years  ago,  at  the  request  of  an 
editor,  who  wanted  an  article  on  the  subject :  "  Will 
It  Pay  to  Study  Engineering?"  He  promptly 
declined  the  article  when  received,  writing  as  fol- 
lows: "You  certainly  must  be  mistaken  or  your 
experience  has  been  unusual.  This  is  the  first 
time  I  have  ever  read  such  statements  regarding 
the  engineering  profession,  which  is  universally 

181 


182  ENGINEERING  AS   A   VOCATION 

considered,  I  might  say  is  known,  to  be  very 
remunerative."  No  arguments  could  move  him, 
and  one  of  his  corps  of  special  writers  prepared 
the  sort  of  article  he  wanted,  which  appeared  on 
the  front  page  of  an  educational  edition,  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  summer,  filled  with  advertise- 
ments of  schools,  a  goodly  number  of  technical 
schools  being  listed.  The  writer  later  submitted 
the  article  to  a  newspaper  syndicate,  four  news- 
papers and  three  magazines,  finally  being  com- 
pelled to  write  this  book,  in  which  it  is  the  final 
chapter,  in  order  to  have  it  printed.  In  the  light 
of  this  information  the  editorials  are  doubly  inter- 
esting. 

CALLING  IN  THE  STUDENT 

(The  Engineering  Record,  September  30,  1911) 

THIS  is  the  period  at  which  the  up-to-date  pur- 
veyor of  education  is  beginning  to  realize  the 
results  of  the  publicity  campaign  of  the  last  sea- 
son. The  traditional  college  president  has  always 
until  now  been  a  bald-headed  and  bespectacled 
minister  of  the  gospel,  clad  in  shiny  broadcloth  and 
dividing  his  time  between  homilies  to  his  assem- 
bled flock  of  students  and  instructing  them  in 
Paley's  Evidences.  But  we  have  changed  all  that 
and  to-day  the  personage  chosen  to  head  an  edu- 
cational institution  is  very  likely  to  be  a  polished 
and  smooth-spoken  man  of  affairs,  smartly  dressed 
and  ready  to  meet  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men 


ENGINEERING  AS   A   VOCATION  183 

with  the  persuasive  affability  that  leads  to  legacies. 
His  chief  function  is  administrative,  and  he  is 
become,  in  fact,  the  manager  of  a  species  of  educa- 
tional department  store,  keenly  anxious  to  adver- 
tise his  wares  and  judging  the  success  of  his  cam- 
paign by  the  number  of  customers  who  attend  his 
bargain  sales  of  learning.  The  change  may  be,  on 
the  whole,  for  the  worse  or  better,  but  the  thing 
w^hich  here  concerns  us  is  the  nature  of  the  adver- 
tising campaign  which  is  carried  on  and  the 
veracity  of  the  claims  made  for  the  goods  adver- 
tised. There  is  no  educational  pure  food  law 
which  compels  nostrums  to  be  labeled  with  their 
percentage  composition,  so  that  when  a  skilfully 
worded  advertisement  proclaims  the  virtues  of 
mechanical  engineering  syrup,  or  electrical  engi- 
neering cough  mixture,  the  would-be  customer 
knows  as  little  of  its  real  virtue  as  the  man  who 
reads  the  certificate  of  a  centenarian  to  somebody's 
stomach  bitters  knows  how  far  those  bitters  vary 
from  ordinary  whisky  or  whether  the  centenarian 
ever  lived. 

To  be  quite  serious,  the  situation  in  technical 
education  calls  for  comment,  for  the  publicity 
methods  adopted  by  some  institutions,  from  the 
humble  but  profitable  correspondence  schools  to 
the  university  with  4000  or  5000  students,  are  often 
open  to  somewhat  severe  criticism,  chiefly  because 
the  respective  courses  advertised  are  proclaimed 
as  nostrums,  a  few  doses  of  which  must  inevitably 


184  ENGINEEKING  AS  A   VOCATION 

lead  to  distinguished  success,  measured  in  dollars. 
Unfortunately,  of  course,  those  who  take  the  medi- 
cine do  not  always  or  often  reach  the  expected 
result,  and  learn  too  late  that  the  published  cer- 
tificates of  excellence  are  slightly  misleading.  It 
is  the  purpose  of  this  comment  to  present  some  of 
the  hard  facts  regarding  the  courses  of  treatment 
commonly  prescribed. 

As  regards  the  engineering  professions,  noth- 
ing is  further  from  the  fact  than  the  common  delu- 
sion that  they  are  especially  promising  and  lucra- 
tive. They  are  honorable  callings,  very  alluring 
to  those  whose  tastes  run  in  technical  lines,  and 
guaranteeing  a  decent  livelihood  which  may  rise 
to  distinguished  success  if  supplemented  by 
extraordinary  ability,  rare  good  fortune  or  an 
exceptionally  powerful  pull,  these  three  additional 
factors  being  here  rated  in  increasing  order  of 
practical  importance.  Many  statistics  have  been 
published  in  the  last  few  years  regarding  the  earn- 
ing capacity  of  technical  school  graduates  at  vari- 
ous periods  after  graduation.  They  sound  well, 
but  in  point  of  fact  they  are  no  more  encouraging 
than  what  could  be  derived  from  similar  statistics 
gathered  from  the  graduates  of  non-technical 
institutions  of  similar  grade,  or  from  men  of  simi- 
lar ability  and  opportunities  trained  only  in  mer- 
cantile pursuits.  The  group  last  mentioned  would 
practically  be  impossible  of  comparative  investi- 
gation, for  the  simple  reason  that  of  late  years  it 


ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION  185 

has  been  the  fashion  for  young  men  of  good  ability 
and  from  well-to-do  families  to  acquire  a  collegiate 
education  of  one  kind  or  another. 

There  are  certainly  no  large  prizes  to  be  drawn 
in  the  ordinary  course  of  events  from  the  engi- 
neering lottery,  and  investigation  of  the  affairs  of 
any  large  company  would  show  that  the  big  sal- 
aries do  not  fall  to  the  lot  of  the  engineering  force, 
however  competent.  Now  and  then  they  may  be 
drawn  by  men  who  have  received  technical  train- 
ing, but  in  virtue  of  circumstances  quite  apart 
from  that  training.  If  one  were  to  judge  educa- 
tion by  pecuniary  results,  as  shown  by  statistics, 
it  is  altogether  probable  that  the  supreme  place 
would  be  taken  by  Harvard  or  Yale,  not  in  virtue 
of  any  special  excellence  of  the  education  there  to 

**  -      ^_ —        — -  -^ 

be  obtained,  but  from  the  simple  fact  that  both 
these  institutions  have  drawn  in  large  numbers 
students  whose  antecedents  have  foreordained 
them  to  pecuniary  success.  A  few  men  in  any 
given  class  who  inherit  the  great  business  interests 
which  mean  large  apparent  earnings  raise  the 
average  to  a  point  that  bears  no  relation  to  the 
value  of  the  course  of  educational  training  they 
may  have  followed. 

As  an  example  of  the  fallacy  of  statistics  one 
may  profitably  examine  the  claims  made  in  the  last 
few  years  for  the  so-called  business  courses  of  the 
post-graduate  variety.  The  nominal  result  indi- 
cates great  rewards  for  the  diligent  student,  but  a 


186  ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION 

little  examination  of  the  situation  makes  it  per- 
fectly evident  that  few  or  no  young  men  have  time 
or  money  to  devote  to  post-graduate  courses  in 
finance,  unless  they  have  already  within  reach 
openings  for  which  this  additional  training  is 
merely  a  convenient  preparation.  Many  men  of 
large  affairs  proclaim  bitterly  and  justifiably  of 
the  lack  of  trained  men  for  positions  of  high 
responsibility,  but  save  in  very  rare  instances  these 
positions  do  not  go  to  young  men  whose  sole  recom- 
mendation is  education  and  ability.  The  college- 
educated  man  who  quickly  lands  in  an  important 
position  generally  does  so  because  he  has  been 
trained  with  reference  to  putting  him  in  that  par- 
ticular position. 

The  " business  course"  is  not  wholly  a  hollow 
sham,  for  it  imparts  information  of  which,  with 
opportunity,  great  use  may  be  made,  but  the  oppor- 
tunity is  generally  the  cause  rather  than  the  result 
of  the  training.  Mental  discipline  in  engineering 
or  otherwise  is,  in  and  of  itself,  a  good  thing,  and 
on  the  average  the  well-trained  man  stands  a  much 
better  chance  of  making  good  when  opportunity 
offers  than  the  untrained  man.  In  so  far,  institu- 
tions of  learning  do  not  either  fail  of  their  pur- 
pose or  claim  virtues  that  are  not  theirs,  but  the 
young  man  who  is  drawn  to  them  by  the  publicity 
campaigns  inaugurated  of  late  years  should  enter 
without  roseate  illusions,  and  with  full  realization 
that  the  most  he  can  hope  for  is  the  discipline  and 


ENGINEERING   AS   A  VOCATION  187 

training  that  will  enable  him  to  make  the  best  use 
of  his  abilities,  if  he  ever  gets  the  opportunity  to 
display  them. 

WHAT    CAN    THE    ENGINEERING    PROFESSION    DO    TO 
IMPROVE  ITS  POSITION  ? 

(Engineering  News,  August  17,  1911) 

THERE  may  be  some  among  our  readers  who,  on 
reading  the  above  title,  will  question  whether 
engineers  need  do  anything  to  improve  their  posi- 
tion. There  are  plenty  of  platitudes  in  print 
describing  the  grandeur  of  the  engineer's  work, 
the  heavy  responsibilities  he  carries,  his  advan- 
tage over  other  men  in  being  able  to  make  his 
work  an  imperishable  monument  to  his  ability. 
We  think,  however,  most  engineers  who  are  daily 
confronted  with  the  bread-and-butter  problem  will 
agree  that  the  present  position  of  the  engineering 
profession  leaves  very  much  to  be  desired. 

It  is  generally  agreed,  we  take  it,  that  at  least 
nine  out  of  ten  members  of  the  profession  are 
receiving  less  for  their  work  than  what  can  be 
considered  a  fair  compensation,  when  the  degree  of 
responsibility,  the  uncertain  tenure  of  the  employ- 
ment, the  long  period  of  training  and  experience 
required  to  attain  a  high  position  in  the  profession, 
and  the  income  earned  by  successful  men  in 
other  lines  of  work  are  all  taken  into  account. 

The  exceptions  to  this  rule— the  engineers  who 


188  ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION 

are  amassing  a  competence  or  wealth— are  very 
largely  the  men  who  have  given  up  the  profes- 
sional practice  of  engineering  and  taken  up  some 
line  of  business.  It  is  often  said  that  engineering 
is  a  poor  business.  There  is,  however,  plenty  of 
good  and  profitable  business  in  connection  with 
engineering  work. 

Certainly,  this  situation  is  not  one  to  be  approved. 
It  will  be  admitted,  of  course,  that  the  professional 
man  in  any  line  of  work,  if  we  except  the  modern 
surgeon  and  the  corporation  lawyer,  does  not  ex- 
pect to  gain  a  fortune,  as  fortunes  are  rated  nowa- 
days, in  purely  professional  work ;  but  at  least  he 
ought  to  gain  a  comfortable  living  and  a  chance  to 
save  a  competence  for  his  family  and  his  old  age. 

It  need  not  be  said  that  engineers  are  mercenary 
in  folding  that  the  work  of  their  profession  ought 
to  be  better  paid.  It  is  well  understood  that  the 
public  to-day  pays  scant  honor  to  success,  unless 
that  success  can  be  translated  into  terms  of  dollars 
and  cents.  The  engineer  wants  a  larger  income 
not  alone  because  of  the  income  or  because  of  what 
it  will  yield  for  himself  and  his  family,  but  because 
he  realizes  that  his  position  in  the  community  in 
which  he  lives  and  the  respect  that  he  and  his 
fellow-members  of  the  profession  can  command 
is  greatly  reduced  if  he  is  compelled  through 
meager  salary  or  inadequate  fees  to  live  on  a  scale 
far  below  that  of  his  neighbors.  And  what  applies 
to  the  man  in  the  higher  ranks  of  the  profession 


ENGINEERING  AS   A   VOCATION  189 

applies  also  to  the  younger  men— to  the  rank  and 
file,  clear  down  to  the  beginners.  We  find  men 
doing  work  requiring  expensive  education,  a  high 
degree  of  skill  and,  more  than  all  else,  a  high  grade 
of  honor  and  trustworthiness.  We  find  men  meet- 
ing all  these  requirements  and  yet  receiving  com- 
pensation which  is  too  often  below  that  of  the 
skilled  workman  who  is  a  member  of  a  union. 

We  shall  not  attempt  to  discuss  in  detail  the 
causes  which  have  led  the  engineering  profession 
into  this  situation  further  than  to  say  that  they  are 
traceable  in  general  to  the  reaction  in  higher  educa- 
tion against  the  old  time  training  which  led 
nowhere  and  to  the  widespread  desire  among  well- 
to-do  parents  to  fit  their  sons  for  the  work  of  a 
profession  rather  than  for  a  business  career. 
Whatever  the  causes,  they  are  beyond  the  power 
of  the  engineer  to  remove. 

The  fact  must  be  faced  that  the  profession  is 
overcrowded  at  the  present  time  and  will  continue 
to  be  overcrowded  for  a  long  time  to  come.  This 
means  that  the  supply  of  engineers  is  in  excess  of 
the  demand  and  that  by  the  process  of  competition, 
wages,  salaries  and  fees  inevitably  tend  toward  a 
minimum  below  which  the  supply  is  reduced  by 
men  taking  up  some  other  line  of  work. 

It  has  been  seriously  proposed  by  some  engineers 
to  follow  the  example  of  the  trade  union  and 
attempt  to  limit  competition  and  fix  a  standard 
scale  of  wages  for  draftsmen,  instrument  men,  etc. 


190  ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION 

It  is  extremely  doubtful  whether  such  a  plan 
could  possibly  be  made  operative  and  whether,  in 
the  event  that  it  could,  it  would  be,  on  the  whole, 
a  benefit  to  the  profession.  Inevitably,  by  such  a 
procedure  the  profession  would  forfeit  something 
of  the  public  esteem  which  it  now  enjoys.  Fur- 
ther than  this,  it  must  be  admitted  that  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  competition  is  beneficial  to  the  profes- 
sion. If  we  can  have  competition  that  will  enable 
the  best  and  ablest  men  to  rise  to  the  top,  competi- 
tion that  will  displace  the  third-rate  and  fourth- 
rate  men,  because  men  of  greater  ability  can  be 
found  to  fill  their  places,  we  might  then  see  an 
actual  benefit  to  the  engineering  profession  from 
competition. 

In  order  to  view  this  question  in  an  intelligent 
and  constructive  way,  we  must  view  it  from  the 
side  of  the  public  as  well  as  from  the  side  of  the 
engineer.  The  public  complains  that  the  work  of 
the  engineer  too  often  is  poorly  done.  There  are 
too  many  mistakes;  there  is  too  much  extrava- 
gance. The  men  dealing  with  large  affairs  claim 
that,  while  there  are  plenty  of  engineers  who  can 
do  this  or  that  or  the  other  special  task,  they  do 
not  know  how  to  find  engineers  whom  they  know 
to  be  trustworthy  to  deal  with  the  largest  prob- 
lems and  not  make  mistakes.  It  is  recognized  that 
such  engineers  when  they  can  be  found  are  liter- 
ally worth  their  weight  in  gold.  In  high  positions 
of  executive  responsibility,  the  engineering  man- 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  191 

agement  often  makes  all  the  difference  between 
profits  and  losses ;  between  success  and  failure. 

It  is  not  often  realized,  we  believe,  how  difficult 
is  the  task  of  the  man  who  wishes  to  employ  a 
competent  engineer,  and  how  much  more  difficult 
the  task  is  than  it  was  twenty-five  years  ago !  Not 
because  there  are  fewer  competent  engineers,  by 
any  means ;  but  because  engineering  work  covers 
a  far  wider  range,  and  the  profession  has  grown 
so  large  that  engineers  themselves  are  often  at 
a  loss  to  find  the  right  man  for  a  special  task. 
It  must  be  said,  too,  that  the  public  does  not  fully 
comprehend  the  great  difference  between  different 
grades  of  competency  in  engineering.  The  public 
is  too  much  inclined  to  put  all  engineers  into  two 
classes— the  good  and  the  bad.  It  does  not  realize 
that  there  are  all  grades  between  the  extremes. 

An  excellent  illustration  of  the  attitude  of  the 
public  toward  this  question  is  furnished  by  the 
legislation  which  has  been  proposed  requiring  all 
engineers  to  pass  an  examination  before  an  official 
board  and  receive  a  license  in  order  to  have  the 
privilege  of  practising  their  profession.  Talk 
with  almost  any  layman  on  such  proposed  legis- 
lation and  he  will  express  the  opinion  offhand 
that  it  would  be  a  good  thing  to  have  some  such 
law  so  that  the  public  would  be  protected  from 
incompetent  engineers.  He  has  no  appreciation 
of  the  flimsiness  of  any  such  barrier  as  a  protec- 
tion to  the  public. 


192  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

We  have  so  fully  discussed  this  particular  ques- 
tion in  recent  months  that  we  do  not  need  to  con- 
sider it  further  here,  except  to  point  out  that,  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  public,  there  is  real  need  that 
it  should  be  assisted  in  the  selection  of  competent 
engineers.  It  will  be  admitted,  perhaps,  that  the 
banker  or  the  capitalist  engaged  in  large  enter- 
prises knows  fairly  well  how  to  gauge  the  ability 
of  the  engineers  he  is  accustomed  to  employ,  but 
that  is  only  one  limited  aspect  of  the  case.  Take 
the  engineers  engaged  in  municipal  work:  How 
does  the  average  city  council  know  how  to  pick 
out  the  right  engineer  when  it  wants  to  build  a 
bridge  or  system  of  water-works  or  engage  in  a 
large  scheme  for  road  improvement1?  How  shall 
governors  and  mayors  and  public  boards  know 
how  to  select  the  right  engineers  for  the  works 
they  have  in  charge  ?  Nor  is  this  question  limited 
to  public  works.  The  great  bulk  of  the  members 
of  the  profession  engaged  in  mechanical  engineer- 
ing are  in  the  employ  of  manufacturing  concerns. 
How  shall  the  superintendent  pick  out  the  right 
man  for  a  chief  draftsman  ?  How  shall  the  presi- 
dent find  the  man  he  needs  for  a  superintendent  9 
How  shall  the  board  of  directors  get  the  right  man 
for  the  executive  head  of  their  concern?  Upon 
such  selections  as  these  the  financial  success  of 
many  a  concern  will  directly  depend.  But  in  how 
many  cases  is  a  certain  man  selected  for  an  office 


ENGINEERING  AS   A  VOCATION  193 

simply  because  fhey  do  not  know  where  to  find  a 
better  one  ? 

When  one  stops  to  think  of  it,  is  there  any  com- 
modity of  commerce  of  such  great  value  which  is 
bought  and  sold  by  such  crude  and  imperfect 
methods  as  is  high-class  professional  and  execu- 
tive ability  ?  There  are  recognized  exchanges  for 
buying  and  selling  cotton  and  grain  and  metals 
and  stocks.  There  are  even  exchanges  for  buying 
and  selling  the  ordinary  grades  of  labor ;  but  when 
it  comes  to  the  highest  class  of  professional  service, 
on  which  so  much  depends,  the  buying  and  selling 
is  done  in  a  manner  which  leaves  everything  to 
be  desired. 

Let  us  take  an  actual  example:  Here  is  a 
mechanical  engineer  who  has  been  for  nearly  half 
his  lifetime  in  one  position,  having  responsible 
charge  of  a  certain  class  of  work.  He  has  attended 
strictly  to  business,  but  his  work  has  been  techni- 
cal rather  than  executive  and  he  has  made  no  wide 
circle  of  acquaintances.  Some  business  change 
occurs.  Perhaps  the  controlling  interest  in  the 
company  changes  hands.  The  works  may  be 
closed,  or  operated  under  a  different  system.  The 
new  owners  have  no  use  for  his  services.  After 
twenty  years  of  steady  work  he  is  thrown  out  of  a 
position  and  he  has  little  more  idea  how  to  find 
another  one  than  if  he  were  newly  landed  on  earth 
after  a  journey  from  Mars.  Further,  and  what  is 
one  of  the  most  unfortunate  features  of  the  whole 


194  ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION 

4  situation,  a  man  cannot  offer  his  own  services  for 
sale  without  immediately  depreciating  their  mar- 
ket value  by  50  per  cent,  at  least.  We  may  say 
this  ought  not  be  so,  but  we  must  recognize  the 
existent  fact.  The  mere  statement  that  a  man  is 
out  of  a  job  and  is  asking  for  another  always  counts 
against  him. 

Take  another  illustration  and  a  very  common 
one :  A  man  is  engaged  in  a  steady  position,  but 
at  work  which  he  knows  to  be  much  below  his 
capacity  to  perform  and  at  a  salary  much  less 
than  he  feels  he  would  be  worth  in  a  more  respon- 
sible position.  How  is  such  a  man  to  find  the  open- 
ing that  will  place  him  where  he  wants  to  be  ?  In 
some  cases,  it  is  true,  a  man  is  fortunate  enough 
to  have  employers  or  superiors  who  place  the  obli- 
gations of  brotherly  kindness  above  mere  mercen- 
ary considerations  and  who  are  willing  that  a  man 
should  make  an  effort  to  better  himself  without 
imperiling  his  present  position;  but  this  is  far 
from  being  always  the  case. 

It  may  be  said,  in  reply,  that  there  are  certain 
engineering  employment  agencies  carried  on  by 
private  enterprise  which  make  a  business  of  regis- 
tering engineers  who  are  open  to  offers  of  posi- 
tions and  who,  with  more  or  less  industry,  canvass 
possible  employers.  It  may  be  admitted  that  these 
concerns  do,  after  a  fashion,  serve  as  exchanges 
whereby  the  buyer  and  seller  of  certain  classes  of 
engineering  work  are  brought  together  and  en- 


ENGINEERING  AS  A   VOCATION  195 

abled  to  do  business.  But  many  a  man  is  loath  to 
place  his  honor  and  his  professional  reputation  in 
the  custody  of  such  organizations.  Further,  these 
concerns  deal  only  with  positions  in  which  salaried 
men  are  involved.  No  solution  to  this  problem 
can  be  considered  complete  which  does  not  deal 
with  the  employment  of  engineers  for  public 
work,  etc. 

We  wonder  if  many  engineers  have  not  at  some 
time  or  other  in  their  lives  felt  the  need  of  some 
organization  of  high  standing  which  could  offer 
their  services  in  the  market  without  in  any  way 
lowering  their  own  self-respect  or  lessening  their 
market  value.  We  do  not  believe  any  organization 
carried  on  as  a  private  enterprise  can  meet  this 
need,  no  matter  how  well  managed  or  by  whom 
conducted. 

At  various  times  in  the  history  of  Engineering 
News,  the  project  has  been  canvassed  of  organiz- 
ing in  connection  with  this  journal  of  some  such 
high-class  exchange  for  professional  services  as 
is  here  proposed;  but  it  is  our  belief  that  this  is 
not  a  field  in  which  private  enterprises  alone  can 
do  the  best  work.  It  is  our  belief  that  this  work 
should  be  undertaken  by  the  organized  engineering 
societies  of  the  country,  and  that  it  is  the  most  im- 
portant responsibilty  which  now  lies  before  them. 

It  is  true  that  in  a  small  way  a  number  of 
engineering  societies  have  already  undertaken 
something  in  the  way  of  an  employment  exchange. 


196  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

The  American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers, 
for  example,  has  for  many  years  published  at  fre- 
quent intervals  a  bulletin  containing  a  list  of  its 
members  who  are  open  to  offers  of  new  positions, 
together  with  a  list  of  employers  desiring  en- 
gineers. In  numerous  other  societies  the  secre- 
tary's office  has  become  more  or  less  of  a  meeting 
ground  for  the  members  out  of  work  and  those 
looking  for  engineers. 

The  criticism  we  would  make  upon  such  work 
is  that,  while  it  is  good  as  far  as  it  goes,  it  falls 
far  short  of  what  ought  to  be  done  to  put  the  buy- 
ing and  selling  of  high-grade  engineering  services 
on  a  dignified  and  proper  basis.  Instead  of  being 
a  mere  trifling  side  issue,  it  should  be  fully  organ- 
ized and  important  department  of  every  engineer- 
ing society,  and  it  should  be  conducted  on  a 
business  basis. 

Let  us  explain  a  little  more  fully  what  we  have 
in  mind:  Suppose  in  the  American  Society  of 
Mechanical  Engineers,  for  example,  there  were  a 
complete  register  including  every  member  of  the 
Society  open  to  offers  of  a  position,  or  to  engineer- 
ing work  of  any  sort,  in  a  consulting  or  other 
capacity,  and  stating  concerning  each  man  all  the 
information  that  an  employer  or  a  client  would 
desire  to  know.  Such  a  list  should,  of  course,  be 
carefully  classified.  All  the  different  grades  of 
work  would  be  included  so  that  the  society  could 
satisfy  applications  either  from  the  directors  of 


ENGINEERING   AS  A   VOCATION  197 

a  manufacturing  concern  in  search  of  the  right 
man  for  an  executive  head,  or,  at  the  other  extreme, 
from  concerns  having  openings  for  student  mem- 
bers just  graduating  from  college. 

It  is  recognized,  of  course,  that,  before  any  con- 
cern selects  an  important  executive  officer, 
personal  interviews  will  be  had  and  thorough 
investigation  of  the  man's  past  record  will  be  made. 
The  Society  employment  exchange  would  not 
recommend  one  man  or  another,  but  it  would  place 
in  the  hands  of  a  concern  in  search  of  a  vice-presi- 
dent, a  superintendent,  or  a  chief  draftsman  the 
names  of  three  men  or  eight  men  or  twenty  men 
who  would  be  eligible  candidates  for  the  position. 
It  would  show  for  each  of  these  candidates  what 
their  entire  experience  and  professional  record  had 
been.  It  would  give  the  names  of  the  men  best 
qualified  from  personal  acquaintance  to  speak  as 
to  the  ability  and  character  of  each  candidate 
suggested. 

We  believe  that  this  service,  if  conducted  as  it 
might  be  conducted,  would  render  greater  benefits 
to  the  engineering  profession  and  to  the  public 
which  employs  engineers  than  any  other  work  in 
which  the  engineering  societies  of  the  United 
States  have  ever  engaged.  Of  course,  there  would 
be  difficulties  in  the  conduct  of  any  such  organiza- 
tion. There  are  difficulties  in  accomplishing  any 
useful  and  important  task.  There  would  be  room, 
of  course,  for  favoritism  to  creep  in  and  for  the 


198  ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION 

Society  to  be  made  a  tool  to  advance  the  interests 
of  a  certain  few  who  were  on  the  inside,  with  re- 
spect particularly  to  the  recommendation  of  men 
for  the  highest  positions. 

It  does  not  seem  to  us,  however,  that  this  is  a 
strong  argument  against  the  undertaking  of  any 
such  work.  When  the  essential  principle  of  pro- 
fessional work  is  honorable  adherence  to  fair  and 
impartial  standards,  we  cannot  believe  that  it  is 
impossible  for  the  organizations  representing  the 
engineering  societies  of  the  United  States  to  carry 
out  such  an  important  trust  in  an  honorable  and 
impartial  manner.  If  any  of  the  societies  are  not 
now  organized  so  that  they  are  truly  representa- 
tive of  the  membership  at  large  and  so  that  the 
governing  body  can  be  trusted  with  large  responsi- 
bilities by  the  membership,  then  reorganization  is 
needed  in  any  event. 

Of  course  the  argument  will  be  brought  forward 
that  there  would  be  dissatisfaction  with  a  Society 
on  the  part  of  certain  of  its  members  who  would 
fail  to  get  positions  and  who  might  even  have  their 
present  positions  jeopardized,  because  it  would  be 
found  possible  to  provide  better  men  in  their 
places.  But  failure  to  benefit  such  men  is  no 
reason  why  a  Society  should  not  do  what  it  can 
to  benefit  its  abler  members.  The  fact  must  be 
faced  that,  with  all  the  care  taken  in  the  selection 
of  men  for  membership  in  the  national  societies, 
there  is  included  in  the  membership  of  all  of  them 


ENGINEERING   AS  A  VOCATION  199 

a  certain  proportion  of  men  of  low  grade.  Of 
course,  a  Society  cannot,  in  justice  to  its  reputa- 
tion, assist  to  place  such  men  in  positions  where 
they  are  likely  to  bring  discredit  upon  the  profes- 
sion. Nor  would  it  be  likely  to  under  the  plan  we 
have  suggested  above,  under  which  those  desiring 
to  employ  engineers  would  be  simply  given  a  list 
of  eligibles,  with  their  qualifications,  experience 
and  references  and  the  employer  would  make  his 
own  selection. 

It  is  worth  while  to  emphasize  the  fact  even 
farther  that  the  public  needs  this  service  from  the 
engineering  organizations  as  much  as,  if  not  more 
than  the  profession  itself  needs  it.  Millions  of 
public  funds  to-day  are  being  wastef ully  expended 
because  of  the  failure  of  the  public  to  place  high- 
grade  experts  in  charge  of  the  technical  depart- 
ments of  public  work.  This  is  realized  by  very 
many  intelligent  citizens,  but  the  difficulty  they 
experience  is  in  distinguishing  the  real  expert  from 
the  man  who  poses  as  one. 

If  the  engineering  societies  would  each  create 
an  organization  and  make  known  their  abilty  to 
furnish  a  list  of  high-class  experts  available  for 
any  class  of  engineering  work,  we  believe  their 
services  would  be  in  demand  by  city  councils,  by 
mayors,  by  governors  and  heads  of  state  depart- 
ments and  even  by  many  departments  of  the  fed- 
eral government,  besides  the  demand  from  private 
business  concerns. 


200  ENGINEEKING  AS  A   VOCATION 

Such  a  work  by  the  societies  would  supplement 
and  systematize  the  work  which  is  now  being  done 
by  many  engineers,  by  the  deans  of  engineering 
schools,  by  the  heads  of  important  engineering 
firms.  At  present  when  a  man  wants  an  engineer 
for  an  important  piece  of  work  and  does  not  know 
where  to  find  him,  he  writes  letters  to  half  a  dozen 
people  or  firms  who  he  conceives  might  know  of 
such  a  man.  All  these  people,  as  a  rule,  take  time 
from  their  regular  work  to  answer  these  queries 
to  the  best  of  their  ability,  knowing  that  they  them- 
selves may  need  aid  in  a  similar  search  at  any  time. 
At  the  same  time  the  engineer  who  is  out  of  a  posi- 
tion, or  who  is  in  a  position  and  wants  a  better  one, 
is  writing  twenty  letters  to  people  he  knows  who 
might  suggest  where  what  he  wants  can  be 
obtained. 

Such  monumental  inefficiency  in  connection  with 
the  buying  and  selling  of  engineering  work  is  a 
disgrace  to  the  engineering  profession;  but  the 
individual  engineer  is  powerless  to  help  himself 
and  can  do  very  little  to  aid  others. 

Only  through  the  organizations  representative 
of  the  engineering  profession  can  a  systematic 
method  be  established  for  bringing  the  competent 
engineer  into  touch  with  the  employer  who  desires 
first-class  professional  service  and  is  willing  to 
pay  for  it. 

The  four  great  national  engineering  societies 
have  on  their  rolls  over  21,000  members,  who  con- 


ENGINEERING  AS  A  VOCATION  201 

tribute  annually  some  $300,000  for  their  support. 
These  societies  have  the  standing  and  reputation 
and  public  prestige  to  undertake  such  a  work  as 
we  have  proposed  and  make  it  a  success.  We 
repeat  that  it  is  the  most  important  responsibility 
which  is  now  before  them. 


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NOV    211932 
JOL  231934 


MAR 


19Jan?52 
8feb540J 

1954LU 


23Feb'59LAl 


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REC'D 

Cl-  '65  -11  AM 

1IOAN  DEPT. 


LD  21-50m-8,-32 


YC   19638 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


